


Missing Pieces

by NikkiNicoleP



Series: Ghosts Of The Code [2]
Category: Wreck-It Ralph (2012)
Genre: Drama, Family, Friendship, Gen, Mystery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-11-22
Updated: 2014-01-09
Packaged: 2018-01-02 07:53:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,670
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1054325
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NikkiNicoleP/pseuds/NikkiNicoleP
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having learned that Turbo's effect on Sugar Rush was more extensive than originally thought, the group works to restore the game to its intended state. (A direct sequel to King Glitch.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The First Patch

"All right, Mr. Fix-it...."

"Just Felix'll do, sir."

"Yes, of course. Now - what we're looking for should be near Adorabeezle Winterpop's file, I think." 

King Candy furrowed his brow as he leaned around Ralph to watch Felix drift through Sugar Rush's code, fidgeting with his glitch-proof bracelets as he tried to remember the layout Turbo had pulled them through while in control of Candy's body. "Let me see... the racer's files should radiate from Vanny's in roughly the order that they come up on the Roster Race board, so Adorabeezle should be fairly close to Vanellope and between, ah, Gloyd and Citrusella."

"Got it." Felix waved a hand, checking his red-licorice safety line for the sixth time as he scanned the areas between the data boxes. "Just a little file-patch?"

"Yes. It's even patch-shaped, I think - once we have a look at it we can determine where it goes and plug it in."

It had been a week since King Candy had been rediscovered as a true character of Sugar Rush and Vanellope von Schweetz's grandfather - a week since Ralph had found him lurking to watch his granddaughter race, since he had tried to explain his attempts at restoring his code and purging the still-embedded Turbo from his data.

A week of nervous candy people trying to match backstory memories of the king against Turbo's reign, wary sidelong glances, and Vanellope spending every night in East Niceland.

A week of planning how best to deal with upgrade data Turbo had never allowed to become part of the game in hopes that it would lead to a way to get rid of his presence for good.

The latter might have gone faster with a more experienced hand in the code, but King Candy was the only one who'd spent large amounts of time there - and he adamantly refused to enter the code proper, refused to even approach without Ralph or Calhoun to keep him in check should it go wrong, had stationed guards in the corridor with orders to repel him if he approached alone, and there was no one willing to argue with these precautions.

Just as well - while he still hadn't glitched proper since Felix placed the bracelets on him, he could still feel an occasional not-quite-painful bubbling deep in his code - especially as he peered at all that vulnerable data. He shivered now at the echo of Turbo's raging attempt to break free, and relaxed only when he became aware of Ralph's blocky finger resting on his shoulder.

"Okay?" the wrecker asked gruffly. King Candy winced a bit at the hint of a scowl as Ralph regarded him, then smiled weakly.

Ralph was only worried about Vanellope and the rest of Sugar Rush; they all had every right to be.

"All right. I'm all right, I mean."

"I've got it!" Felix called. He gingerly took hold of the patch in one hand and tugged the safety line twice with the other. Ralph immediately tightened his grip on his end of the rope, hauling Felix in so suddenly the handyman yelped and grabbed for his cap.

"Sorry, Felix." Ralph grinned sheepishly, helping Felix back to solid ground with a bit more care as King Candy stepped back to give them room. Once he was steady on his feet Felix grinned at the king, brandishing the bit of unconnected code.

"Well - here it is!" 

He held it in both hands as Ralph knelt for a better look, and King Candy nodded with a little smile. 

"All right then - open it up." 

Once Felix tapped the shell to render it translucent, all three of them leaned in for a look at the data (King Candy lacing his hands behind his back to quell any temptation to touch).

"Hm. I'm afraid I don't know what even half of this means, you know." A grimace. "He never really explained what he was doing. But I think this--" he nodded toward a weave of code "--means a level. A few of them were altered, I think, and their workings looked similar."

"A level?" Ralph asked. "Like a track? Why would he mess with those?"

"I don't know, to lead them away from anything he couldn't cover up until he could get to it? And some of them certainly changed slightly after the reset. Be that as it may, I think we can plug this into the main track file."

"Seems like a lot for just a new track," Ralph mused as they watched Felix head back out into the code. "Not that I'd know." 

"Well... there may well be new power-ups as well. Something for the bakery, perhaps. Easter eggs for Adorabeezle's character model." King Candy shrugged, stepping back a bit. "We'll just have to have a look once it's installed."

***

Vanellope and Calhoun were in the throne room when they emerged; Calhoun immediately came forward to greet Felix while Vanellope scurried to Ralph with a shy, wide-eyed look at King Candy.

"Did you get it, can we get... get Turbo out?"

"That's gonna take time and work, gumdrop," Felix said as Ralph lifted the girl onto his shoulder. "We don't really know how to quick-fix this."

"Fix, huh." Vanellope sniffed, looking at Felix's golden hammer. "Couldn't you just... do what you do?"

Felix shook his head as he linked hands with Calhoun, already heading for the doors.

"Afraid not, sweetheart. There are some cases where we just don't know how the hammer will interpret things - like before you reset the game and restored your code, I couldn't just try to fix you because... w-well it might've interpreted 'fixing' things as...." He faltered and cleared his throat. "And in King Candy's case, it might work - or it might permanently fuse the two character codes and whatever bug code is still there, especially since two regenerations didn't get rid of this."

"Oh."

"At any rate," King Candy said slowly after a moment, "we think the blocked patch we just plugged in opened a new track, most likely near Ice Cream Mountain. We're going for a look, to see if anything else is open. Would you... like to come?"

" _Would_ I!" Vanellope beamed, nerves pushed aside as she nodded fervently. "I can't _wait_ to try out a whole new... I mean, uh, as President it's my, hehe, _duty_ to have a look, make sure it's solid, and all."

"Right. Duty." Calhoun pursed her lips to hide a grin as Vanellope cackled again. "All right, Cavity Queen, you drive Wreck-it, Fix-it and I'll go on the cruiser, and von Schweetz...." She paused and frowned, looking at where the white royal kart had once been parked. It was now hidden in a garage beneath the castle, neither Vanellope nor King Candy entirely comfortable with its presence, and King Candy had not touched a kart at all since his first regeneration.

"He can ride with us," Vanellope said slowly. "Like Felix did once." She gave the king an uncertain look before clearing her throat and straightening. "Just... yanno, behave. No.. backseat driving or... anything."

King Candy smiled tentatively and nodded.

"Best behavior. Thank you, Vanellope."

***

The ride to Ice Cream Mountain was the most awkward Ralph had endured since having to take a tram alone with Gene in the first days after the Sugar Rush incident. Both Vanellope and King Candy rode in perfect silence, though occasionally Vanellope perked slightly as she often did when about to speak and King Candy occasionally made a similar motion beside him.

This was going to drive them all crazy before everyone was fully comfortable. So much for Sugar Rush being his sanctuary from the intermittent awkwardness of him and the Nicelanders readjusting to each other.

At least it was a comparatively short ride, especially with the way Vanellope drove. Ralph and King Candy both sprang from the kart before it had fully stopped; Vanellope soon followed, and within moments Felix and Calhoun were landing beside them.

Below, the new track gleamed in all its twisting, dipping, hairpin-curved glory. Vanellope danced with delight, awkwardness forgotten as she squealed.

"Oh! Wow! Look, look, look at it! Look at those jumps! Look, the point of the nut slices, I gotta be spot-on, and then right into that double-hairpin, wow!" She giggled, turning to face them. "And... and... it's a track no one's ever raced on... we're all gonna be perfectly even with no one really knowing all the dips yet, not like the rest of 'em, and ohhhh isn't this _great_?" She danced in place a moment more and then, before anyone else quite realized what she was doing, leaped to slide down an ice cream drift for a better look.

After a moment Ralph laughed, shaking his head.

"Well, guess we better follow her."

Once down at the track they gathered at the start line, peering down the neat expanse. The surface appeared to be made of ground chestnuts, and it was lined with puffs of whipped cream topped with various powders - brown cocoa, pink strawberry, a green powder smelling oddly of leaves.

"Wonder what it's called?" Felix asked after a moment.

"White Chestnut Way," Vanellope and King Candy replied in unison. They glanced at each other a moment, then started walking along the track for a better look, unconsciously falling into matched step.

"Seems like I should know something else, though," Vanellope said thoughtfully. King Candy nodded, stopping his walk along the track to pace instead; Ralph watched the familiarly exaggerated turns a moment before shaking his head.

"Yeah? Like what?"

"I'm not sure," King Candy said thoughtfully. "It's there, but not quite--Vanny?"

Vanellope had gone to one of the larger mounds beside the track, blinking.

"What's this?"

They hurried over to see. The whipped cream was mostly hiding what looked like a block of isolated code; a sweep of Ralph's hand cleared the fluffy confection away, and they could see a vague shape inside.

As if they'd rehearsed it, Vanellope and King Candy reached out to touch it. It flashed, and they all stepped back as the coding fell away to reveal a figure around Vanellope's size.

A little girl with bobbed brown hair curling around her cheeks, wearing a fluffy white hat with a dusting of cocoa brown at the top and a sort of shawl secured by a large bow under her chin. They could see chestnut buttons securing her knee-length coat and low boots, and leaf-green eyes blinked at them as she woke.

" _CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'VE UNLOCKED COCO MONTBLANC!_ "

Vanellope and King Candy's eyes had glimmered oddly - exactly as the racers' had when their memories were unlocked - and they murmured the name alongside the announcer's booming tones.

Then the girl - Coco - stumbled, and both of them (along with Felix) were moving to help her.

"Oh my starbursts," King Candy finally said. "He was locking out other racers."


	2. Reconnecting

Vanellope shuffled her feet against sugar cube tiles and sighed. For a building of its size the castle was often surprisingly empty; Sugar Rush held few citizens who weren't candy fans, racers, or programmed family members and while she could hear the march-and-chant of the Oreo guards it did little to ease the lonely feeling that Coco's unlocking had brought on - not Coco herself, but the truth of the other girl's isolation, a dreary existence that Vanellope remembered all too well.

Did _Coco_ remember too? It was an uneasy topic she didn't know how to breach, or if she should.

Somehow, it had left her reluctant to even go watch the day's races.

"Maybe I could make it out to Niceland between quarter alerts," she muttered aloud. "Hide out with Mary and the rest... wonder if they'd let me help toss Stinkbrain."

They wouldn't, of course, but the thought made her chuckle, and she scurried down the hall for the exit.

Halfway there, a low, absentminded humming caught her ear, and she froze in her tracks.

_King Candy_.

She gulped, waffling as she pushed down ingrained fear. Then she walked toward the sound, peeking into a half-open door to see him perched at a too-high desk, the humming coming and going as he scribbled notes in even, slightly looping handwriting. He was wearing those huge, ridiculous black glasses, feet swinging idly in a way that she'd never noticed him - _Turbo_ , she reminded herself - do, but which seemed oddly familiar all the same.

She gulped again before creeping in.

"Hi, uh, King... King Gramps."

Her voice squeaked, and she cleared her throat as he pulled off the glasses and turned toward her, blinking mildly.

"Vanny... hello, sugarplum."

He sounded as unsure as she felt. Vanellope realized this was the first time she'd been near him without Ralph's reassuring presence, and they both smiled nervously as he hopped from the stool to hesitantly approach.

"Shouldn't you be... ah, that is, you came in third in the Roster Race yesterday...."

"Oh, that." She flapped a hand. "I, uh, set it to put Coco in instead. Um... you see.... it's... she was... yanno, locked out of the races for such a long time, and I just thought... I mean, I know what that's...." She looked away, hands in pockets as she toed at the floor.

"I see." He smiled again, more genuine this time. "You're a good girl, Vanellope."

She blinked hard, unexpectedly touched by the praise, and offered a lopsided grin as she wagged a finger.

"Yeah, well - don't get _too_ used to it." 

He grinned.

"Oh, no need to worry my dear. The 'Sarge's Cruiser' incident is already legend."

"Ralphie says I could single-handedly convert this to a demolition derby," she chirped. He laughed at that, nodding, and she relaxed enough to scurry to the desk, climbing onto the stool.

"Whoa - what is all this?"

He stepped up beside her.

"I've been trying to make a more thorough code map for Felix. And remember all the upgrades, and where they could be, and...."

"Oh." She squinted, trying to make sense of it. "You think there are more kids?"

"I'm certain."

"How many?" 

"I don't know." He shrugged. "For about three years we had several patches a year, probably not all with racers but certainly some with. I need to remember them in order, patching them in in the wrong order could cause gl...." He paused. "Software errors."

She flapped a hand again.

"You can say it. I uh... I know you don't mean what he did, and we're both kinda glitchy now."

"Pixlexia, you called it?"

"Yeah. Runs in the family." She managed something like her usual cheeky grin as he laughed again, and then turned back to the papers. "So how come we remember Coco now? It's like she was always here, and I remember white-chocolate truffles and candied chestnut trees where her house is and... and...."

"Self-protective on the game's part, I suppose. To keep us from trying to force the unlock too early. After all, if we don't remember someone, we don't remember they're important to us, and...." He trailed off, shrugging, and Vanellope looked away.

"I'm sorry."

He half-reached toward her.

"Oh, Vanny. Don't be, if anyone should--"

She grabbed his wrist just above the bracelet.

"Hey - you remember what I said?"

He stared at her a moment, taken aback, before nodding.

"Oh yes. Something about a kick in the pants, wasn't it?" He looked down at himself, making a show of examining his clothing. "Well, seems I've got plenty of padding there."

Vanellope stared at him a long moment before squeaking out a laugh, bouncing down off the stool as he laughed along with her.

"Okay, you got me there, King Gramps. So I guess I better think of a better threat!"

"I tremble where I stand."

"Yeah, you better!" She headed back out as he climbed back up to the desk, then paused in the doorway. "Oh and, uh...."

"Hm?" 

He turned back to her; he had already donned the reading glasses again, and blinked at her with over-enlarged eyes. Vanellope blinked back and then shrieked with laughter, shaking her head as she caught her breath.

"Never mind! See you at the Roster Race!"

***

White Chestnut Way had not come up over the course of the day's races, so Vanellope had decided to officially bring it - and Coco - into the game by having the Roster Race on the new track. Once the spectators willing to make the trek out - mostly parents, the most vocal fans (including the 'Assorted' and 'With Nuts' sections), and of course Ralph, Felix, Calhoun, Sour Bill, and King Candy - had all arrived, she glitched up onto the sparkling START sign to grin down at them.

"Okay, everybody listen up! For a long time, there was a pretty standard line-up of racers in this thing. And then a month ago, you finally got a new one! That was... oh yeah. _Me_!" She held her hands out, mugging for the crowd as they cheered, then gestured for them to quiet down. "Okay okay, I know ya love me but wrap it up. Anyway! It turns out I wasn't the only racer a certain butthead was keeping off the board!" 

King Candy sank in his seat a bit as a few people looked in his direction. Vanellope scrunched up her face and blew her breath out.

"No, not _him_ ya doofs. I know there's been a lot to get used to lately but go with me on this okay?" She grinned, realizing she was pleased at how he waved and smiled up at her. "Anyway, we got a new racer. Eight of you got to see her stuff today, and now the rest of us are going to! Be- _hold_ , our new racer and the lady of White Chestnut Way - Coco Montblanc!" 

Coco flushed with embarrassment, waving sheepishly as the crowd cheered, and all but fled to her chestnut kart as Vanellope laughed.

"Whoa, hold up there Coco. Pay-to-play, remember? So let's all grab our coins and get ready to race!"

The track and new racer were both a success. Coco easily managed first, smoothly navigating the course either through programmed knowledge or because she'd somehow been awake to practice on the track in her long years cut off from the rest of the game (a possibility Vanellope didn't want to consider), and after an ill-timed Cherry Bomb from Jubileena caused an impressive pile-up in the double hairpin the race ended with Gloyd, Candlehead, Nougetsia, Taffyta, Vanellope, Snowanna, Rancis, and Crumbelina sweeping in behind her.

"All right, guys - great race, and remember! Great new things are coming to Sugar Rush, and there's more where me and Coco came from. Well, not _exactly_ where we came from, probably. Figure of speech. Anyway, we're all ready to go for tomorrow, so let's have a great rest of the night!"

She hurried over to her family, glitching the last few feet to land on Ralph and then scurrying back and forth on his shoulders like an excited chipmunk.

"Wow! That was great! You all saw me speed past Jubes when I realized she was getting dumb with that bomb, right? She was gonna try to bury the competition, but haha, VROOM and she buried _herself_!" 

She flopped on her belly, giggling. 

"Well. It _was_ an exceptional race." King Candy smiled as he got to his feet. "You four are off, then?"

"Yep." Felix grinned. "Tapper's night."

"Hey, um... say." Vanellope hesitated, then grinned. "How about you come too? I mean... your connections are fine, so you can probably leave the game. Have you tried?"

"Well, no...."

"Okay then! Let's go!"

King Candy found himself unable to argue with his granddaughter's tentative but sweet smile, and nodded with a little smile of his own. They passed out of the game without trouble, and while he trembled at the memory of the last time he'd been in the outlet - chasing a madman holding Vanellope's life in his hands - within the hour he was more relaxed than he'd been in fifteen years, laughing at Vanellope's attempts to down her root beer faster than Ralph's single gulps and glowing with contentment.

***

They left a few hours later, Vanellope more than half asleep on Ralph's shoulder and mumbling vaguely about Diet Cola Mountain getting to be a real track. Felix had climbed onto Calhoun's back and plopped his cap on her head; to both Ralph and King Candy's amazement she took this without complaint, even chuckling quietly deep in her throat.

"You know... perhaps I _should_ spend a bit less time hiding away in the castle," King Candy said. It had been pleasant for the company, but also because no one faltered when speaking to him or gave him odd sidelong glances. Turbo had been too worried about what exiting the game might do to his borrowed form to visit; no one here knew King Candy as anything more than his current self.

"Would probably be good for you," Ralph said genially. "Visit around a bit more sometimes too. Don't know that Street Fighter or Tron's your speed, but you'd get along great with Mary." 

"Certainly worth a try. I--"

He glanced down at a napkin he'd absentmindedly carried out and froze, frowning. After a moment he turned it slowly until the Tapper's logo was upside down.

"Candy?" Ralph asked, frowning. "You okay there? Look, I told you the sour apple stuff was--"

"It's fine," King Candy said, absently waving a hand. "Up-up-down-down...." He tensed as he felt the uncomfortable bubbling in his code, then relaxed slightly as the glitch bracelets held. "But... where did he _get_ this? It...." He looked up at the others' bemused faces. "He never memorized how to get into the code. It was written on one of these... I'd forgotten somehow, knowing the code seems natural."

"Ralph and I automatically knew it too, all leads do," Felix said. "We're all from the same manufacturer, have the same code, why would he need....?"

"Addled himself playing in too many codes?" Calhoun suggested. Ralph nodded.

"Seems fair, who knows what he was up to before you guys were plugged in... Turbo probably went bye-bye a long time before he hit Sugar Rush." He waggled his fingers in an oddly delicate gesture. "So it's no wonder he needed a cheat sheet."

"But on a Tapper's napkin of all things," Calhoun said thoughtfully. She looked back at the bar's entrance. "How'd he even get in there unnoticed? Tapper's a lead from around the same era, would he have....?"

"No," Felix and Ralph said together. "At least... I don't think so," Ralph said after a moment. "Tapper listens and gives hints. He doesn't step in. He's a _bartender_ for mod's sake!"

A moment of uncomfortable silence, and Felix sighed.

"I know someone who might be able to shed some light - he just doesn't like anyone knowing he's around. Been about two months, though, so should be back in GCS any day now. Spends most of his time out there." He jerked a thumb toward the thick cable leading out of the station, perpendicular to the game cables.

"Out _there_?" Ralph repeated. Vanellope, who had dozed off at some point, stirred and he raised a hand to soothe her. "What is he, nuts?"

"Maybe." Felix smiled ruefully, crossing his arms atop Calhoun's head to rest his chin on them. "But I think he can help."


	3. The Survivor

For the next several days, Felix was always carrying a pie - boysenberry - when he left his game at closing time. Taking an item out-of-game always attracted the Surge Protector, and Felix always talked with him briefly after the usual questions; when the officer shook his head no Felix stopped to share the pie with him before moving on to meet the others.

After four days, Surge Protector finally nodded and Felix smiled, relaxing a bit.

"Thank you, sir. I'll bring you something from Sugar Rush."

"Thanks, Felix. See if they've got pop rocks?"

"Will do!" 

"You know, come to think of it, I remember seeing you do this before," Ralph said as Felix caught up to him and Calhoun. "I just figured you were the kind of guy who randomly brings people pie."

"He is," Calhoun said. Felix grinned, cheeks glowing, and took her hand.

"Well... everyone likes Mary's pies, right? All right, we'll meet him after the Roster Race. Should be clearer in here and he's... a mite reclusive."

Ralph and Calhoun exchanged a mystified look, but allowed Felix to draw them into Sugar Rush.

***

After the race, Felix led the group back out to GCS, cradling the pie in his hands as he talked with King Candy.

"So uh... is it possible for you and Turbo to keep anything from each other?"

"I'm not sure how much he kept from me or I could keep from him right now. There are things that are fuzzy, but I don't know the cause and he certainly didn't bother to control it." King Candy frowned a little. "But I could definitely keep things from him. For one thing I knew who that sixteenth racer was as soon as she stepped out with that medal, and he didn't realize until it was too late. I was hoping if she just got on the board the game would force the issue, so...." A shrug. "I don't know the balance between what the surface personality can keep from the submerged one and vice versa. But I can certainly try to, ah, stifle it. Why?"

Felix shrugged a bit. 

"Be easier if we could keep him in the dark but at the same time we need you up to date for the most part." He sighed. "It's a unique problem - never heard of it outside of gameplay." 

King Candy nodded slowly, stopping.

"Perhaps I'd better head back then. We can think of a way to keep him in the dark later... I'll keep working on getting those patches in order for now."

"All right, sir. See you later." 

They had reached an empty outlet. Felix waited until King Candy hurried off and then peered in, shifting the pie to one hand as he tipped the brim of his cap up.

"Hey there. Heard you were back."

A moment passed, and a seated figure rose to come a bit closer.

"Probably has to do with you always being on the lookout." He stretched, joints popping. "Tryin' to mother the whole Arcade. You really should--" He cut off as he stepped into the light, tired face going slightly blank as he stared at the little gathering, and shocked silence reigned for a long moment.

Vanellope had started back slightly at the familiar-looking pale gray skin and bright yellow eyes. This figure was leaner, though, dressed in dark blue with no colorful stripes or trim to break it - only a single white blaze on his helmet. After a moment he scowled, looking at Felix.

"What's going on?"

" _Drift_?" Ralph breathed. He gaped a moment before catching himself and straightening. "I mean uh... you _are_ Drift, right? Sorry, I never got the hang of telling you two apart, so...."

The racer rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. I'm Drift. Fix-it?"

"Where's D--" Ralph felt the barest tap of Felix's boot against his ankle and closed his mouth as the handyman approached the lone twin.

"Now Drift, don't be mad - no one here's sore at you or out to get you. We just need your help." He folded his hands, thumbs twiddling nervously. "You know Ralph, and this is my girlfriend, Sergeant Tamora Jean Calhoun - Hero's Duty - and our friend Princess Vanellope von Schweetz - Sugar Rush." 

"President," Vanellope said automatically. 

"Sorry, gumdrop, I was gonna explain but these're formal introductions."

"Yeah, yeah." She looked at Drift, playing gently with her fingers as she gazed up at him. "So... you're...." 

"A Turbo Time racer, yes, oooh scary." He snorted as he took the pie from Felix and leaned against the wall. "Anyway, yeah, you caught me. Fix-it and Surge _usually_ let me have some peace." He stared at Felix a moment as the handyman shifted guiltily. "Surge would probably fry me if I headed into a game, though. Before you ask, yes I was out when we were unplugged, no I didn't stick around 'cause I didn't figure I was gonna exactly be Mister Popularity, and yes I run around outside the station." He gestured vaguely toward the cable leading to the arcade wall outside, territory few characters dared venture into. "Litwak's is like a beacon to me, probably because it was the last place we _were_ plugged in, but out there there's enough Turbo Time cabinets still running in other arcades that I can duck in... take a look around... and not get too... _tired_." He ran a hand down his face, then peered over it at Calhoun. "You really his girlfriend?"

"You hang out in other versions of your game? In other arcades?" Vanellope asked, intrigued.

"Yeah. Don't show myself or try to participate, though. No worries. I'm not...." His mouth twisted wryly. "... _going Turbo_."

"That's not what I...." Vanellope trailed off, looking helplessly at the other adults, and Calhoun cleared her throat sharply. 

"Look, we might as well cut to the chase. What you just said? That's why Felix thought it was a good idea to bring us to you. Turbo's alive. Fix-it here thinks you can help." She paused. "And yes. For the record, he's my boyfriend."

Drift stared at her a long moment, sour expression wiped away. Then he took a deep breath.

"Whoa. Okay. That'd be a really bad joke but you ain't kiddin'. Y'know, I think I need to sit down."

He stepped back into the outlet, using the wall for support, and then sank into a sitting position against it. 

"Uh, for the record I need to sit down because of the first thing you said. Not the boyfriend thing. Anyway let's hear it. The part about Turbo."

***

It took a surprisingly short time to tell the story. Drift sat silent throughout, moving only to direct his attention to whoever was speaking - usually Ralph and Vanellope, with occasional input from Felix and Calhoun, the four picking up thoughts and finishing sentences whenever one of them faltered.

Drift was quiet for several moments after they finished. Then he blew out his breath in a long sigh, fingers drumming against the floor.

"Huh. Didn't... think half of that was even possible. Wonder how many games he screwed over figuring this all out." 

"No telling," Felix said, gazing at his laced fingers. "He did a... a real thorough job in Sugar Rush. And still is, to a degree." 

"Mm." Drift ran his hand down his face again and grimaced. "Well let's hope I don't have to give that little king of yours Turbo's rightful ass-kicking. The hell kinda name is _Candy von Schweetz_ anyway?"

Vanellope hopped to her feet, eyes narrowed. 

"Hey you _better not_. He's doing his best, okay? He always did. And I haven't seen _you_ with any bright ideas yet!" She huffed. "And it's a _Sugar Rush_ name. Get used to it."

Drift blinked at the child, then at Ralph seated behind her. Then he snorted softly.

"Relax, Princessident. I was mostly kidding. So what do you want from me?"

"Things we're missing." Felix shrugged. "Don't know if it's important. But the King tells me Turbo didn't know the code to get into the, uh, code. Seemed strange. But you and your brother knew him best - anything about how he's operating, anything at all, might be able to help us figure out exactly what he did and how, so we can undo this. Bringing the blocked patches in might or might not help...."

"But you want to know if I have any idea how he was doing this, and if there might be someone still around who was helping him." Drift's sour look deepened as he leaned back against the wall, arms crossing. "Well... Turbo knew pretty much everyone, you know that. Like you, only less... you. Far as I can tell most of the people he hung out with most are long gone... leaves Tapper, Pac Man, Mario... uh, let's see...."

"We can make that list ourselves," Calhoun cut in. "Tapper's the biggest concern... if he was helping there's a problem, but we'll have a riot on our hands if something gets that place unplugged."

"Look, Fidget Felix over there asked. As far as why he didn't know the code himself, given that these are same-company games... that's weird. I don't know what's going on there and I don't know why it was on a Tapper's napkin - sorry. Coding himself into that king, though... doesn't quite fit either. Sure he'd get attention, but it's not attention for _Turbo_ , yanno?"

"I do know," Felix said slowly. "Never thought of it that way. Huh."

"Something I don't quite remember... just like your Sugar Rush clowns." Drift sighed softly. "In my case it's mostly from trying not to think about it. I'll see what I can dredge up, though. Pulling my code might help with memory but I don't know how to do that outside a game."

"Sounds dangerous anyway." Ralph got to his feet, picking Vanellope up as he did. "Let us know if you think of anything."

"Yeah. I'll be around a few days."

"Right." Felix and Calhoun stood as well, the handyman picking up the empty pie tin. "Drift... you know the old offer still stands... and we found a way to code characters into games...."

"I know. And I think I told you a few times - I don't want to be part of a game again." The racer retreated deeper into the empty socket, face shadowed; Felix started after him, but Calhoun caught his shoulder gently.

"Leave him," she said softly, none of her usual harshness evident as she picked Felix up. "I know you want to fix it - it's what you do. But you can't push. Sometimes people start to come around." She nuzzled the top of his head for emphasis. "Some of us are still coming around. But no pushing - you need to give us... him... time, sometimes."

"Yes ma'am." Felix gave Drift one last glance over Calhoun's shoulder before settling in her arms with a deep sigh, and the four left the empty socket in silence.

***

Vanellope snuggled down in Ralph's hand as they headed back to Sugar Rush, sneaking a peek around him at the empty outlet.

Shut out, ostracized, never able to do what you knew you were coded for... she shivered, gnawing at a hoodie string, and leaned against Ralph's free hand when he brought it up to lightly stroke her back.

"You okay, kid?" he murmured. Vanellope nodded a little.

"Y-yeah. I'm just... getting a lot of reminders lately."

"Oh." Ralph cleared his throat uncomfortably, pausing a long moment. "You uh... wanna call it a night?"

"After we see if King Gramps got the next patch figured. There could be someone locked inside the next one...."

"Right. Home after that?"

"Yeah. But uh... different home tonight. I uh... I think I'm ready to try a night in Sugar Rush. Cuz, yanno, alone in that big place... I mean, sure Sour Bill's there, but... uh...." She grinned half-heartedly. "I remember that. Not in the castle, but... yanno. But... Ralphie?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you stay there with me? Please?"

He smiled, nodding once.

"Sure, Fartfeathers. No problem."

He ruffled her hair with his free hand. She disappeared beneath his palm, laughing as she shoved ineffectually at it with her own chubby little hands, and glitched up onto his head to ruffle his hair in turn before glitching away when he grabbed at her. He chased after her with a mock roar, hands held in front of him in a grabbing motion, and she ran all the way back to Sugar Rush in a series of glitches and delighted shrieks.


	4. The Million-Quarter Question

By the time Vanellope went to bed, her brain was buzzing like a pack of pop rocks.

The latest upgrade, which King Candy had identified with confidence on their return, indeed contained a racer - a dark-haired, ruby-eyed girl in red and white (" _VELVETINA BRITEFLOUR!_ "); Candlehead, beside herself with delight over the girl's red velvet theming and the way her Red Velvet Road wound around the cupcakes below Royal Raceway, had immediately volunteered to give up her place on the roster for Velvetina as Vanellope had for Coco.

Vanellope had felt a strange sense of pride at that - that the other racers were picking up on her ideas, and genuinely trying to make newcomers feel welcome instead of isolating them. 

Such a change from the past fifteen years. Somehow, that contentment made the reminders that Drift - and the fact of the other racers being shut out - presented all the more unsettling. 

Still, Ralph was sitting quietly beside her, and she knew he wouldn't go to the giant spongecake mattress someone had managed to bake up for him until he was certain she was asleep. King Candy was just down the hall, probably still working on putting patches in order, and despite lingering nervousness that too was more reassuring than she would have ever thought possible. Even Calhoun and Felix were hardly out of reach, even in another game.

Focused on that, she finally fell asleep as Ralph nodded beside her, her hand resting lightly on his thumb.

***

_First day of races tomorrow, Vanny - I can't wait to see it!_

_That glitch cannot be allowed to race!_

_End of the line, glitch!_

_It will be all right, Vanellope. I promise you, everything is going to be fine._

Vanellope woke with a faint gasp, blinking hard against the same confused not-quite-nightmare she'd been having since her reunion with her grandfather - a mishmash of memories of his true self and the past fifteen years jumbled together. She rubbed her eyes with a stifled groan, trying to reconcile the snide, deceptively cheery tone she'd learned to fear with the warmer tone she was learning to love. 

That almost-pleading reassurance must have been the last time she'd seen him as his true self, she realized - she could almost feel a too-tight grip on the back of her neck, remembered King Candy gripping his cane almost like a weapon....

A rumbling snore from Ralph jerked her back to the present; evidently she hadn't cried out, she'd learned it was one thing he could never sleep through. She grinned as she noticed he'd somehow wound up on the floor beside the mattress - thirty years on a brick pile evidently meant he could be comfortable anywhere - and slid from her bed to approach, absently taking her white helmet from the nightstand and hugging it to her chest as she sat. 

After a few moments it was clear that even the oddly soothing sound of Ralph's snoring couldn't cure her restlessness. She put the helmet on over her loose hair and padded out into the silent castle, leaving the bedroom door ajar behind her.

***

She hadn't realized where she was going until she reached the rainbow bridge leading up to the station. Vanellope gazed up at it a long moment and then sighed, plucking a pair of lollipops from one of the trees lining the road and trudging up.

"Do your... eh... grownups know you're out at this hour?" 

Vanellope screamed outright as the Surge Projector materialized beside her. He simply raised his brows, idly clicking his pen, and glanced at the lollipops she was carrying. She huffed at him, wrinkling her nose.

"Vanellope von Schweetz, Sugar Rush, just meeting someone out here, carrying candy like everyone else in my game, and...." She paused. "Uh... yeah. Yeah, they know. That everything, wise guy?"

He raised his clipboard; Vanellope was certain he was rolling his eyes behind it. 

"Mm." He glanced toward Sugar Rush and then the empty outlet before giving her a skeptical look. "Well at least you admit to smuggling."

Vanelloped sniffed, rocking on bare feet. 

"Everybody carries food around. We done or not?"

He sighed after a moment, nodding. 

"Anyone asks I'm telling them exactly where you are, President von Schweetz. Don't be long."

"What, you gonna go tell?"

"I can enter games for short periods." 

She stuck her tongue out at his retreating back before scurrying to the empty outlet to peek inside. The subdued figure was still seated there, helmet off to reveal unkempt black hair, and she crept in and waited until he looked up.

"Here."

She shoved one of the lollipops at him as she spoke; Drift blinked at the candy thrust into his face before looking up at Vanellope. After a moment he took it, giving her a flat look.

"Thanks, I guess. What are you doing here - where are your parents?"

She rolled her eyes. 

"Why's everyone so interested in that tonight? I don't have any."

"Sure you do, three of 'em."

Vanellope sat, deciding not to argue the point.

"Well it's okay for me to be here. So there."

"Sure. Racing helmets and frilly nightgowns are standard gear for authorized night rambles."

"Hey I like the nightgown!" She pouted, arms folded. "And the helmet. Look if you're just gonna be a jerk I'll go visit... someone else."

He said nothing, watching her a moment before leaning back against the wall with eyes closed. Vanellope cleared her throat, fidgeting with the embroidery on her skirt.

"Guess it _is_ kinda frilly. So... uh... Drift, huh? You old guys tend to have pretty straightforward names, doncha?"

He smiled faintly at that, eyes still closed.

"Worse than that, Princessident. My actual name is COM1." His voice sounded a bit distant. "Was Litwak who decided otherwise... Drift and Draft, he called us. My brother and me, we had different driving styles. Just a little bit. I think Litwak was the only player who cared enough to notice. We liked it."

"Yeah, well. It's nice to have _someone_ notice you, huh. Better if they're nice about it."

"Yeah." He shrugged. "We liked it. Had everyone calling us that, even the Surge Protector accepted it as our names after awhile." A frown. "Turbo started refusing to though, those last few weeks. Said it was too confusing to call us anything but COM1 and COM2. Maybe he was already losing it, maybe he just didn't like being reminded that we'd gotten some attention he thought was rightfully his. Really upset Draft though... he was kinda sensitive and Turbo was a tantrum-thrower." He looked away, pulling his knees up to his chest. "So he was too nervous to chase Turbo when he ran off to Road Blasters... shoulda stayed with him, or made him come, or... something, I don't know."

Vanellope scooted a bit closer, discomfitted by the older racer's strained tone, and laid a hand over his.

"I... w-well, um... he... you didn't know...."

"Been over it a million time, kiddo," he said hoarsely, rubbing roughly at his face. "Turbo's fault or not I just feel like... and now I hear from your crew he's alive, and...." He paused, lowering his hand. "Hold on. You're completely sure about that, right?"

"W-well yeah. He... he came right after we were plugged in. Everybody felt sorry for him." Vanellope leaned back, shivering in spite of herself, not quite able to look at Drift's bright yellow eyes in the dim light of the outlet. "I ... I saw him... we raced, my glitching m-made him show his... his real self, after he'd been using my King Gramps to run the game."

"Right. I remember." Drift watched her a moment before clearing his throat. "Take it easy, kiddo." He patted her awkwardly. "But the Surge Protector. He was surprised?"

"Huh?" She frowned. "Well uh... yeah... why?"

"Because... look he can't monitor everything, can't possibly know who's in and out at all times, but two games unplugged, one crashed by a rogue? He woulda been watching! Keeping anyone from going in and taking log of who got out, he needs to know what homeless characters are out here in case of problems, they tend to cause 'em after awhile. So here's the million-quarter question - _how did Turbo get out without Surge noticing_?"

"I...." Vanellope frowned. "Yeah. Surge would have... could he have done anything about it?"

"Sure. He's not just some dweeb with a clipboard, kiddo - he's got ways to subdue viruses and stuff, and once I saw him catch and dissipate a power surge before it could hurt games. He could have caught Turbo coming out or at least slowed him down while he alerted people and he would have been _watching_!"

"But he dropped the ball somehow."

They both looked over at Ralph as he stood in the entry, yawning. Drift shrugged after a moment.

"Not so much 'dropped' as 'tossed into the abyss'. I think this belongs to you." He gestured to Vanellope, who got up and scurried to Ralph with a small, sheepish smile. "Might wanna keep the little monkey under wraps until this starts adding up." 

"Yeah." Ralph picked Vanellope up as he stepped back. "A good question, though. We've got a lot of good questions lately... I'll get Felix to talk to Surge, he gets along with him better than I do." 

"Right. Later, Wreck-it."

"Um... hey," Vanellope said softly. "No one... I mean, no one ever said you have to stay out here by yourself, so...."

"You got a hearing problem, Princessident? 'Cause I think I already said I don't want to be part of a game."

"I know, but while you're visiting...."

He waved her off as he retreated. Ralph cradled Vanellope in both hands as he walked back toward Sugar Rush.

"Don't take it personally, kid. He's got... well, even more to think about than he already did."

"Yeah. I just...."

"I know." He glanced down at her. "That why you snuck out in the middle of the night?" 

She looked away, tugging at her thumb. 

"Are you mad?"

"No, but I was pretty freaked out when we couldn't find you." He grimaced. "Had to talk Candy out of sending the whole guard out looking, he's already got Duncan and Wynchell asking around Sugar Rush."

"Oh. Oops." Vanellope hunkered sheepishly, tugging the helmet down over her eyes; watching her, Ralph smiled a little in spite of himself.

"Just... wake someone up next time, okay?"

She nodded, subdued, and once King Candy was assured that she was all right (and had given her a similar admonishment) she allowed Ralph to carry her back to her room.

This time, instead of going to bed she curled up on Ralph's massive chest, and when sleep came her dreams were peaceful.

***

Ralph awoke a few hours before arcade opening and groaned in exasperation when he realized Vanellope was nowhere in sight. A moment later he heard her rummaging in the closet and sighed.

He was getting too tense.

"Getting dressed!" Vanellope sang out after a moment. "So get outta here! I'll meet you soon, 'kay?"

"Okay." He got to his feet, grumbling as he headed out toward the kitchen.

King Candy was already there, muttering fretfully as he peered into a crock of oil.

"Uh... hi," Ralph said after a moment. "Trouble with the recipe?"

The king jumped slightly, then laughed nervously as he turned to Ralph.

"Ah! Er, no. Just... general worries."

"You and all the rest of us, pal." Ralph shrugged, taking a seat on the floor. "So uh... anything particular, or just patches and wandering presidents in general?"

"Well... all of the above, I suppose." King Candy shrugged. "Vanellope wandering around... well, it's... Turbo's tried to kill her more than once. If he does still have an ally, and they find her out alone...." He frowned, using a pair of tongs to prod at something in the oil. "And I suppose I've got some worries about what will happen once we do manage to separate Turbo."

"How so?"

"Well... for one thing, we have to figure out what to _do_ with him. For another... suppose the Cy-bug coding is still present even after he isn't? Turbo was... well, I wouldn't call him _sane_ , but he definitely had it under control until then. Suppose even if we manage to separate and detain Turbo there's still bug code in mine, and...."

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence before Ralph spoke up. 

"I... look. I don't... think that's gonna be an issue. Turbo was definitely crazy before then - the attention he got was probably the only thing holding his attention enough to keep it together. He would have had a good ten years of separation fatigue - characters go nuts after awhile if they can't get into a game they're coded to, it's why you don't see many homeless ones and why they didn't just go to other games before Felix figured out how to code Q*Bert's gang into ours. There's whatever made him need a cheat sheet for the code lock even though he's a lead. And the bug...." Ralph shrugged a little. "According to Sarge their big deal is killing things, and overrunning a place. Turbo had overrunning down pat and was ready to kill me and the kid - his mind just... melded well with bug-brain, I guess. Probably why he went bug as soon as he had a foothold after you came back - and even then you kept him in check, sort of. I don't think it'd be the same with you, with how small whatever's left seems to be... no offense, Candy, but you're not exactly a ruthless murder machine."

King Candy stared at him a moment and then burst out laughing.

"Ralph! Why would _that_ offend me?" He started taking food out of the oil, still chuckling as he arranged it on a cooling rack, and Ralph grinned as he picked up a bag of frosting.

"I dunno. Maybe you do have Street Fighter ambitions for all I know." He looked at the cooling pastries and blinked. "Hey - these are donuts."

"Yes, so what?"

"So all this time," Ralph said slowly, "you really _were_ the guy that makes the donuts?"

King Candy was silent a moment before shrugging, barely maintaining a straight face.

"What can I say? You're a perceptive man, Wreck-it Ralph."

They both started laughing, Ralph shaking his head as he turned back to the donuts.

"Hey - what's so funny?"

They looked over at Vanellope, who was peering quizzically at them from the doorway. Then Ralph turned to squirt her with the icing.

"This!"

"Agh! Hey!" Vanellope fell backwards with a yelp, covered head to toe, and wiped her face as she sat up. "Aw come _on_ , Ralph! You can't aim power-ups when we have doubles races but you can always hit with _this_?" She appealed to King Candy, hands spread. "Hey what're you gonna do about this?" 

King Candy hurried over to help her to her feet.

"Oh dear... are you all right?" He waited until she nodded, looking smugly at Ralph, before he picked up a jar of sprinkles and dumped it over her head. "There we are, much better."

"H-hey!" She tossed a handful of icing at him before charging Ralph, grabbing a bag of icing herself and opening fire on both, and a free-for-all ensued that ended only when Felix and Calhoun walked in and the latter caught a gob of stray icing in the face. All five of them froze, Felix clamping his hands over his mouth to stifle his chortles and Ralph, Vanellope, and King Candy standing in a slightly shame-faced row.

"All right," Calhoun said slowly, "who did that?" She looked at the three as she wiped her face; they exhanged glances, Vanellope and King Candy both giggling nervously as Ralph grinned at her, but no one spoke up. "All three of you are gonna get it if I don't have a single target."

"It was him." Vanellope pointed at King Candy, who immediately pointed back accusingly.

"Traitor!" he howled, diving behind Ralph. "Traitor to the crown!"

"I abolished the crown!"

"Fine! Traitor to the... figurehead!"

"I don't defend figureheads, not from _her_ ," Ralph said, stepping hastily aside. "Call your guards!"

"They're no more foolish than you are, Ralph--augh!" King Candy flailed ineffectually as Calhoun, straight-faced, tipped a bowl of batter over his head. 

"All right, you yahoos," she said as she smeared the icing wiped from her face into Felix's hair, "we've got a few hours to see about the next patch and make a game plan. Grab your donuts and let's go."

"Aren't we going to ice them?" King Candy asked innocently. Calhoun rolled her eyes, mouth twitching up slightly.

"Nope. Plain donuts. Let's go."


	5. Interrogations

King Candy had managed to determine the next patch the night before; he and Felix were beginning to learn the patterns that meant a new track, a new character, or simply a new option in the bakery and were both certain there was another racer who could be freed before the arcade opened, so Felix, Calhoun, and Ralph were now seated above the gleaming new Whipvine Fields track while King Candy and Vanellope looked for where the racer would be held. After Coco and Velvetina the other children had developed an avid interest as well and several were attempting to help, though Gloyd and Swizzle had crowded close to the king with questions about the possibility of another boy.

"We ought to talk to Drift and other old-timers more often," Calhoun said irritably. "Missing that the Surge Protector didn't notice was stupid of us - it's not even like Turbo could've hid in the outlet until after the plug was gone." She frowned. "How's his memory work anyway? Surge I mean. He doesn't have data like we do. Does he?"

"I'm... not really sure," Felix admitted. "I never thought to ask. He's a funny thing... he's like a character but... oh, I don't know. It's not important right now." 

"It might be."

"You can ask," Ralph said. "I'll talk to Tapper tonight before he starts getting busy, you can tackle the Surge Protector."

"Nope." Calhoun shook her head. "I'm gonna talk to Tapper. You two are old friends of his and I barely know the guy - so no prejudices for him. Which means Junkpile gets to talk to Surge."

"What?! Why _me_?"

"Felix is friends with him and I'll be busy with Tapper. If all else fails Felix can come play Good Cop but it's best for someone who doesn't really chat with him to do the questioning."

"Uh, Sarge, he basically _is_ a cop, no way he's gonna fall for Good-Bad Cop garbage."

She rolled her eyes.

"Then get Felix to calm you both down after you get on each others nerves! Kind of like _we're_ doing right now!"

Ralph held up his hands placatingly.

"Easy there Sergeant Shortfuse. You're the professional here, I know. I just uh... don't really talk to Surge if I don't have to."

"We'll both do it," Felix said soothingly. "I admit he might get to the point quicker with Ralph, but I know him better and might be able to help out some. You just talk to Tapper, all right Tammy Jean?"

"Mm." She nodded, looking back at the track. "Looks like they found something. Wanna go have a look?"

"Sure do." Felix smiled as he hopped up and trotted toward the gaggle of racers clustered about Vanellope, King Candy, and the shimmering blue shape of a locked racer. "Y'know, I _am_ glad those two are getting on well with the other kids - that's one load off."

"Yeah." Ralph nodded. "Weird as it was at first. In both cases."

Amidst the chattering speculation about the new racer (and Ralph acting as a perch for several kids who couldn't see over their friends' heads while Felix and even Calhoun hoisted one each onto their shoulders), Zipchary Bittervine - a boy in black, yellow, and red, to the delight of the few other male racers - was unlocked and added to the roster in time for opening. Ralph, Calhoun, and Felix left the chattering Sugar Rushers to hurry off to their own games in silence, dwelling on the evening's task.

One more missing piece of Sugar Rush had been found - and they could only hope some of the missing pieces of the larger puzzle could be found that night.

***

Sergeant Calhoun did not like leaving Hero's Duty so soon after closing. The hour or so immediately after the all-clear was a time to review the game to be sure everything was in order, evaluate the performance of her soldiers, and be sure there were no leftover eggs too close to hatching with no player or Game Over beacon to deal with them. Attending to these post-game duties alongside her men, often with Felix's surprisingly effective aid, was a prime way to reassure herself of her game's functionality and the arcade's safety before heading out.

That hour or so was also a prime time to talk to Tapper undistracted, and she was unwilling to put it off until after his customers had gone home.

"All right. Kohut - you're in charge of night checks. I've got outside business to handle." She surveyed them a moment and scowled - Kohut had nodded seriously with only the barest trace of a smile but at least two others had openly smirked, exchanging glances before looking back at her. 

They thought she was skipping out early to meet Felix. She suppressed a groan before looking sharply over the men. 

"This isn't a social visit, ladies. Markowski!"

The private - the only member of the squad who hadn't looked amused - jumped slightly. Markowski had not been allowed out-of-game trips since allowing Ralph to steal his armor; the condition for lifting the restriction had been to fairly capture Felix during one of the handyman's visits, a feat he hadn't yet managed, though Calhoun was certain Felix would take pity on him and allow a capture any day now. For the moment, _she_ was starting to pity him. 

Fix-it's fault, she was sure. Either way, backup might come in handy.

"I might need a second set of eyes. You're with me tonight, so let's go."

"Y-yes sir! Ma'am! Right away!" 

"Have fun, Private Wingman!" Green called as they left. Markowski groaned faintly; Calhoun barely suppressed a groan herself, but decided shouting Green down wasn't worth the time taken from her mission.

Or maybe she was content to let him have his fun.

Either way, it was probably Fix-it's fault.

***

"Can't believe she saddled me with this," Ralph grumbled as he trudged for his game's exit, Felix trotting briskly at his side. "Who made her boss of this anyway?"

"Think we all did," Felix said, grinning faintly. "Only so much we can let Vanellope and King Candy do, and of the three of us she's got the most 'take charge' qualifications." 

"I guess." Ralph sighed as he stepped into the station. "Still don't see what good it'll do for me to talk to the Surge Protector, though, that guy can't stand me."

"What makes you think I don't like you?"

Ralph yelped as the Surge Protector appeared beside him; the officer merely adjusted his glasses as he gazed up at him.

"It isn't like we ever talk outside of protocol, Ralph. So it's not like I could even tell whether I like you."

"Yeah well." Ralph rolled his eyes. "You're always stopping me to be hassled. Like you're doing now."

"I stop you because you keep carrying things between games. But I'm not stopping you right now anyway - I'm stopping Felix." Surge Protector stepped closer to the handyman. "Name?"

"Fix-it Felix Jr, sir," Felix replied cheerfully. "From Fix-it Felix Jr, coming from there too."

"You _know_ his name," Ralph groaned. Then he frowned. "Wait - you called me Ralph! You know _my_ name!"

Surge glanced over, annoyed at the interruption.

"Of _course_ I know your name. You're not exactly forgettable. It's protocol to ask. It's protocol to call it a 'random check', and it's protocol to ask what you're taking out even though I can see what you've got just fine - it's just not worth a fuss, cherries aren't exactly Cy-bugs unless the things mutate better than we thought." He paused, rocking on his heels. "The Lara Croft thing was sort of funny, though."

"Didn't hear you laughing."

"I don't laugh on duty."

"Is that a challenge?" Ralph raised a brow, but Surge was ignoring him to turn back to Felix. 

"Bring any baked goods?" 

"Sure did!" Felix produced a neat little bag of cookies and passed them to the officer. "Here you go. Couldn't find the poprocks, but these're made with M&Ms." 

"Thanks. Where you headed?"

"Oh, Sugar Rush most likely."

"Not Hero's Duty? Well... anything to declare?"

"You're both ridiculous," Ralph said.

"Wasn't asking you," Surge said mildly. He waved Felix through before glancing at Ralph over his glasses. "Did you need something?"

"Well, uh...." Ralph looked at Felix, who nodded encouragingly. "I uh... actually had some questions. About... uh... your data, how's it work anyway? I mean uh... what are... you're not... _coded_ , right? What... makes you work?"

Surge tucked his pen away, looking strangely pleased at the question.

"Oh, that's simple. My base knowledge is from the collective memories of every game here, carried on the currents I use to take shape. From those memories I can start building my own, based on experience and impressions and stored in the station currents - so when I need to remember something I just call up the appropriate wave sequence and open the knowledge. Similar to you reading your memory files but... wavier."

"Simple," Ralph repeated flatly. Surge sighed, though he still smiled faintly.

"My memories are electricity, Ralph. Partly from the games and partly built on my own."

"Oh. I guess that's--" Ralph paused. "Wait - you have all our memories?" 

"No - game memories. For instance, I could have told you both King Candy and President von Schweetz were real characters - but I didn't know the Sugar Rush residents were tampered with because I can't just go around reading character memories and no one thought to ask me after the locks were undone, and I might not have realized Vanellope was a racer - I don't always know who is and isn't an NPC thanks to all the changes that get made in development."

"Oh." Ralph considered that a moment. "So... you really are just electricity?" He reached out to cautiously poke at the Surge Protector, who swatted him away.

"In the same way you're 'just' code."

"Oh... right. Sorry. We'll uh... ask... if anything else weird comes up with, uh, game memory."

"Mm."  

"But wait," Felix said. "Does that mean you don't remember games that... aren't here anymore?"

"Depends. If there are refugee characters I remember where they're supposed to go, and if a game made a significant impact on society here, that becomes part of my personal memories. If neither happens... it's generally fuzzy after a month, fades after a year or so."

"So you _do_ remember Turbo?" Ralph asked. Surge grimaced.

"What, you mean the thing I've been kicking myself over since eighty-seven, especially after the whole Sugar Rush fiasco came out?"

"Uh... yeah, that. Sorry." Ralph cleared his throat. "Look, uh... I know him going into Road Blasters probably happened too fast to stop, what with the race car and all, but... what about him coming back out?"

"What about it?"

Ralph scowled. 

"What do you mean, 'what about it'? It didn't seem important?"

"Not really." Surge shrugged, frowning. "Turbo... well, I knew he came out of Road Blasters. After the game crashed I had to keep any lookie-loos out of there - crashed games are dangerous. Turbo came charging out while I was keeping people from going in. He headed straight for Turbo Time - it was too crowded for me to net him, I could've zapped a bystander, and I didn't think anything of him going back to his own game." He sighed. "I figured I'd be able to get him when he came out before the unplug, but... I don't know how he got out, because the only person who came out of Turbo Time was Drift. At least, the only one I _saw_. And that's what I thought until I heard he'd hacked Sugar Rush - that he'd been trapped and died with the game."

"And there's no way he could've concealed himself in the outlet while it was unplugged?" Felix asked. Surge shrugged, shaking his head.

"I don't know. Certainly no one I know of has tried something like that - but he pulled a lot of stunts no one else has tried. Not in this arcade." He considered, tapping his clipboard idly. "I suppose it's just possible  - I don't know what the speed is outside, but an unplug is fairly slow from our perspective, there might just be time to hop it. And I don't automatically alert on a character going into or out of a game unless they're carrying certain types of item - power-ups, non-personal weapons, and so on. Still... it'd be largely in plain sight."

"Great. So he's a magician too." Ralph sighed. 

"Previously tampered with his code, maybe?" Felix offered.

"I guess. Makes some sense." Ralph sighed, looking back at Surge. "I, uh... well, thanks, I guess. Look, uh... Turbo is still hacked in, and we might need more help later. We're trying to figure this out, so... if you think of something, or notice something weird...."

The Surge Protector nodded.

"I'll keep an eye out - it's what I'm here for." He smiled a bit. "Between keeping an eye out for Cy-bugs and hacked racers, I can't say the job's dull lately." 

"You and me both. And I _am_ gonna see about that anti-laughing protocol."

"You're free to try me any time you're smuggling. See you later, gentlemen."

***

Calhoun pushed the rootbeer she'd been offered aside, scowling at the bar's shiny surface before raising her eyes to the bartender. Beside her, Markowski followed her lead in nudging the drink aside, expression mournful.

"Look, Tapper - we need to talk." 

"Part of the job description," Tapper said cheerfully. He set his cleaning cloth aside and smiled, hands folding as he looked up at her. "What's the trouble, sweetheart?"

"Sergeant," she growled. "Now listen here. You know everyone in this arcade, don't you?"

"Assuming they come in here." He smiled. "So in general, I meet everyone sooner or later. I've known Felix since I was plugged in, so--"

"This is _not about Fix-it_ ," she grated out. "Get that through your head. This is about Turbo."

"Turbo?" Tapper's voice lowered, concern and wariness creeping across his face as he picked up a glass to polish. "Dead and gone. For real this time. Isn't he?"

"Nope. I'm sure you've heard all about how he got roasted in Sugar Rush, the guy he usurped came back and long live the king, so on and so forth. But he was in too deep - he's still in the game's code. Even better, there's a good chance he might still have an ally out here." She finally picked up the root beer, taking a sip. "Seems like he got some help out of _you_."

" _Me_?" Tapper nearly dropped the glass, but recovered and set it safely on the counter. "Look, you don't honestly think... why would I...."

Calhoun studied him a moment. The shock seemed genuine enough; either he was a good actor or honestly dumbstruck at the suggestion.

Or at being found out.

"Yup. Seems he got into Sugar Rush's code with a sequence on a napkin."

"And you think _I_ gave it to him?" Tapper's voice was rising in pitch; he cleared his throat and forced it back to normal. "Why would I... how would I even _know_?"

"Don't know. _How_?"

Markowski straightened at her tone, instinctively starting to come to attention. Tapper started to as well, then collected himself and gave her a slightly cool look.

"Ease up a little, Sergeant. I'll tell you what I know - but keep in mind this was a long time ago, I need a moment."

She nodded once and sat back a bit, watching Tapper as he searched through his memories.

"There was something," he said after a moment. "Right after the first time Turbo Time crashed, one of the twins came in. He was pretty shaken - sat off by himself scribbling something."

 

Calhoun's frown deepened.

"Turbo Time had crashed before?" 

"Oh yes, right after Road Blasters was plugged in. It's probably why _it_ crashed when Turbo went in - he might've still had some corruption. Certainly Turbo Time itself crashed again right after that, and that was when both got unplugged. Not many people remember the first crash - it was only an hour or so, and there aren't many of us left from that era to begin with. Anyway, after awhile that twin seemed satisfied. He rolled up what he had and gave it to me. Said he might need it later."

"And you never looked at it?"

Tapper frowned, offended. 

"Wasn't my business. Anyway, I tucked it in the lost and found. Actually forgot about it. There are a lot of forgotten things back there, it's kind of the point of a lost and found."

"Right. Mysterious notes, mushrooms, privates in wrestling briefs." She glanced at Markowski, who blushed and focused on his rootbeer. "So what happened to it?"

"Well, he turned up and asked for it later. Right after we first heard about Sugar Rush." He shrugged. "Never saw him after that. Never thought about it until now."

Calhoun sat up straighter.

"So a game crashes. One of its NPCs gives you a mysterious note. And you give it back years later." She took a deep breath. " _Why_."

Tapper raised his hands defensively. 

"Look, I thought it was some kind of keepsake. It's not like I handed codes to Turbo - I wouldn't know it anyway,we're from different manufacturers. One of the twins asked me for something he left here, I gave it to him."

She sighed, nodding.

"Fair enough, I guess. You're not a soldier, not programmed to think like one. Probably not a suspicious byte in you, is there." She frowned. "You gave it to a twin?"

"Yep. Right before Sugar Rush was plugged in. Never saw him again after that; I was surprised to see him in the first place."

"A twin." She got to her feet, scowling. "Son of a... come on, Markowski. This just _figures_."

She left payment for the drinks on the bar and stormed out, Markowski on her heels as she headed for the empty outlet, rifle at the ready. 

"Don't know how he races, but let's see how fast this Drift can talk."


	6. Rain and Revelation

Calhoun's stride slowed as she approached Drift's empty outlet, eyes narrowed as she strained to see the racer's small form in the shadows. Behind her Markowski followed her lead, steps surprisingly soft as he readied his own rifle - confused and uncertain, but taking his place without question.

Maybe he was a better soldier than she thought.

Something in the tunnel stirred. Calhoun recognized the flash of white on Drift's helmet as he stood; she stepped forward, charging her rifle but not taking aim.

Yet.

"Evening, Sarge. Didn't expect--"

Drift froze in mid-greeting, expression neutral as he took in her aggressive posture and ready weapon before shifting his attention to Markowski as the private moved to block the way to the station.

"Yep," he said after a moment, " _definitely_ didn't expect this." Despite the words there was a touch of resignation in his voice as he slowly shifted his stance, spreading his hands to show he was unarmed. "So what brought it on?"

"Talking to Tapper," Calhoun said flatly. Drift only stared, and she growled with impatience as she shifted her grip on the weapon. "You were playing around in there after the first Turbo Time crash. You gave him a note to hold onto, and you--"

"Hang on. Far be it from me to interrupt an Amazon with a gun, but _what_ 'first crash'?"

"The first time your game crashed, Drift."

Drift shook his head slightly.

"Is 'crazy' just plain catching in this arcade? Because I have _no_ idea what you're talking about. On either count."

Calhoun stared at him a long moment. 

"Uh huh. Well. _Someone_ in this arcade is lying, and when I find out who--"

"Or everyone's tellin' the truth they know, and we're just plain missin' something."

She tensed and then relaxed at Felix's low, soothing tone, turning in time to see Markowski step aside to let him and Ralph through.

"Sorry to interrupt... what's going on, honeybadger?"

Calhoun ignored Drift's low snort at the nickname, frowning as she rested her rifle on her shoulder.

"According to Tapper one of the twins gave him the code note the first time Turbo Time crashed. Lurk over here claims he doesn't remember the note or the crash."

"No?" Felix frowned slightly, looking over at Drift. "Not at all?"

"Not at all," Drift said slowly. "But there really was a crash, not just Tapper talking out of his ass?"

"Yeah, I remember." Ralph said. "The Surge Protector cut the game off until it just... sprang back. None of us had ever seen anything like it... but all three of you were definitely still there, it crashed during arcade hours." He shrugged. "No one really knows what goes on inside a crashed game, you were probably just reset to a before-crash state. And maybe Tapper saw Draft. We're not worried about that so much as we are how Turbo got hold of the code."

"That's the other thing. Tapper said a twin took it back just after you all heard about Sugar Rush."

"Then it wasn't Drift," Felix said decisively. 

"No?" Calhoun raised her brows. "Because he tells you he hasn't been back in a game in this arcade and you're going with that?"

"I _haven't_ ," Drift mumbled. Felix came forward to lay a hand on his shoulder; the racer flinched, but didn't pull away.

"And I believe you. More to the point, Tammy Jean, Drift _wasn't here_. I remember, only because it was a new racing game and he'd been a little... mopey... after the last one came in. I worry, you know."

"He's the arcade's mom," Drift muttered. Calhoun nodded slightly.

"All right, I'll buy that. So is _Tapper_ lying?"

"What about the other one?" Markowski said suddenly. He faltered as everyone looked at him, but cleared his throat and continued. "I mean, everyone talks like there's only one twin but that normally means two. Right?"

"Yes, but...." Calhoun frowned, looking over at Drift. "Look." She caught a slightly stern look from Felix and blinked, but softened her tone a bit. "I know this is tough and everything going on isn't making it easier. But are you _sure_ your brother didn't come out of that game?"

"Yes." Drift ran a hand over his face as he spoke, shoulders slumping wearily. "I left Draft in the game. I looked for him after, I looked everywhere. _He wasn't there_. He didn't come out a whole lot in the first place... Felix, you know how shy he was. Even going to Tapper's by himself... I don't remember being there, but going alone would have been unheard of for him... if I could have gotten back in I would've...." 

"We know," Ralph said, settling on one knee. "Sorry. Sarge, even Surge said he only saw Drift come out of there...."

"All right," Calhoun said quietly. "Then we're left with Tapper. Question is, is pushing him going to do any good?"

"Maybe, maybe not," Felix said slowly. "What it's looking like... well... it's lookin' like there's only one person in this arcade who knows. And if we're gonna get to the bottom of this, clear out any allies and find a way to keep all of this from happening again, we need to go to him."

"Turbo." Ralph grimaced. "How do you plan on doing _that_?"

"Unlocking and replaying memories, if King Candy'll let me try. I think I can swing it, much as I've been working with code lately." Felix studied Drift a moment and then walked to Markowski, holding a hand out to the soldier; after a moment Markowski took it, bemused, and Felix nodded. 

"Good - you caught me." He looked over at Calhoun then. "Permission to ask him a favor, ma'am?"

Calhoun frowned but nodded, and Felix looked up at Markowski again. 

"Take Drift here to Tapper's and get him something to drink. Not too much, mind. Tell Tapper it's on me. Somethin' for yourself too."

"Er... yes, sir. Thank you, sir." Markowski gave a slightly awkward salute before ushering the racer toward the bar, and the other three headed out for Sugar Rush.

***

Candlehead burst into the King's study with a delighted squeal, bouncing in place as Vanellope and King Candy looked up.

"Nelly! Mister King! You're not gonna believe this! It's raining! And it's chocolate milk!" She pointed upward, beaming. "I don't even mind that it put my candle out 'cause _it's raining chocolate milk_!"

"Yeah," Vanellope said, grinning as she turned to trace patterns of moisture on the frosted sugar windows. "King Gramps says one of the new patches musta had random weather events - him and Felix and even Sarge and Ralph are starting to learn what some code stuff means but some stuff still doesn't make sense to them."

"So we still get the occasional surprise." King Candy glanced at the window and then back at Candlehead with a smile, peering at the happily drenched racer over his reading glasses. "Chocolate milk, you say?"

"Uh huh!" Candlehead bounced in, heedless of the chocolate puddles in her wake. "So what are you two doing in here? It's raining, you know!"

Vanellope giggled, hopping from the windowsill.

"Yeah, we know. King Gramps was just doing some stuff trying to oder the patches." She went to the desk to peer upside down at the notes. "How's that going, anyway?"

"Everything in the right order, I think." King Candy smiled, tapping a list of numbers. as Candlehead joined Vanellope. "Felix and Sergeant Calhoun managed to gather all the patches - before we were relying on how well I remembered what came up where. But with the identity codes, I can put them all in order like that - see?" He tapped the middle of one line of numbers. "I think this is the date it was originally supposed to - what are you doing?"

Vanellope had plucked his reading glasses to put them on herself.

"I'm learning. Whoa - these are like wearing magnifying glasses."

King Candy smiled a bit, shrugging. 

"That would be the point, yes."

"All right, wise guy." She wrinkled her nose, holding on the glasses with one hand. "So there are ten left...."

"Of seventeen, yes."

"Let me try, Nelly!" Candlehead took the glasses and put them on, leaning over the notes. "How many more racers? Oh! I hope I get a twin like Jubi and Citri! Which of these have racers?"

"They can't tell just like that, Candlehead." Taffyta strolled in with Rancis, scrubbing at her rain-streaked face. "And I think we'd know if there were more siblings. Whoever heard of a long-lost twin?"

"I don't know." Rancis shrugged a little. "It might be fun."

"Yeah." Vanellope scooted over to make room for the newcomers at the desk. "Besides, if I can have a long-lost grandpa maybe Candlehead can have a long-lost twin!"

"Yeah, or even you could!" Candlehead giggled, adjusting the glasses as they slipped down. "Anyway these things help see the code so if we all look maybe we'll notice something."

King Candy shook his head slightly, moving aside a bit as more racers filed in to look. 

"That's not quite how glasses--"

"Hey, let me try!" Gloyd grabbed the glasses from Candlehead and put them on. "Whoa. Hm... well, maybe there'll be more wrapper-bow triplets. Or I'll get lots of siblings."

"That sounds terrifying," Taffyta said, rolling her eyes. "Well I'm pretty sure I don't have any palette-swap twins. I mean, _really_ \--"

"What's wrong with swap twins?" Nougetsia stopped her efforts to take the glasses from Gloyd, hurt; beside her, Adorabeezle folded her arms and pouted at Taffyta as the strawberry racer backpedaled, holding her hands up.

"I... I never said anything was _wrong_ with you!  But don't you think it'd be weird to have a twin you don't know about?"

"We know as soon as they're unlocked."

"Yeah, but--" 

"All right, all right, calm down." King Candy, who had by this point been evicted from his stool, held his hands up as the crowd of children around the desk looked at him. "We won't know until we get everything unlocked, right? And after all, no one expected new racers until Coco and no one expected rain until today."

"Hey! I bet driving in the rain's gonna be fun!" Candlehead giggled. "It's all slippery outside _and_ if you get thirsty you can just open your mouth!" 

"That's right," Crumbelina said. "About it being slippery, I mean. A whole new skill test!"

"Right, as soon as Ralph and the others get their butts over here." Vanellope nodded as she reclaimed the glasses. "So should we go out and practice?"

"Nah." Candlehead shook her head. "It'll be more fun to start the roster race fresh! So - until then we should have story time. Everyone knows you sit in and tell stories when it rains!"

"Candlehead, you just made that up," Taffyta said.

"W-well yeah, but it _sounds_ like something everyone knows!"

"I like it," Vanellope said decisively. "So I'll make it official! If we're not racing or playing in it, rain time is story time." She turned to look expectantly at King Candy, and the other racers - by now the full roster - followed her lead. 

"I...." King Candy looked back at the crowd of children - nearly all still dripping with chocolate - and laughed. 

"All right then! Who am I to disobey a presidential decree?"

***

The rain had not let up by the time Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun arrived at Royal Raceway to meet the others. Ralph wiped a hand over his face as the racers took off, grunting in disgust.

"Ugh. Chocolate."

"Chocolate _milk_ ," Felix said sadly. Calhoun snorted, flicking her bangs from her face.

"Oh, lighten up you two." She grinned as they both stared at her. " _I_ like it. Besides, Wreck-it - I thought you decided you liked chocolate?" 

"Only when I'm falling hundreds of feet from a volcanic eruption." 

"Well goodness, boys, what would you _expect_ from cotton candy clouds?" King Candy asked seriously.

"Uh...." Ralph looked at Felix, who only shrugged. "I dunno, sugar water?"

"Now that's just silly."

"He's right." Calhoun clasped her hands behind her back, nodding. "Chocolate milk makes the best sense."

" _How_?" Felix asked, stepping further back into the box to avoid the rain.

"Never you mind," King Candy said primly, eyes back on the jumbotron to watch for trouble on the rainslicked track. "What did you need to ask me?"

"Well...." Felix hesitated a moment, removing his cap and crumpling it nervously in his hands until Calhoun took it away. "Thing is... well, you know after you told us about that Tapper's napkin we started askin' around, right? To see about allies?"

"You found something?" King Candy tore his attention from the race, tone expectant and apprehensive.

"Well... no sir, not exactly. See, it's just... not addin' up, quite. So we figure only one person knows the whole trip."

"Ah. That's... a bit of a problem."

"Yes sir."

"Felix thinks he might be able to get at those memories," Calhoun said, putting the handyman's hat back on his head. "And he thinks with as much as he's learned he might be able to replay what we need."

King Candy was quiet a moment, watching the race again.

"Yes... there should definitely be enough separation between our memories. So the only trouble is sorting through the tangle."

"Which could be dangerous and maybe not necessary," Ralph said. "It's possible any helpers are long gone... or it might come clear once we finish out the patches."

"No," King Candy said slowly. "It's better to know, and quickly, especially since we have no idea what will happen once Turbo isn't contained by my code and these glitch bracelets. Knowing all we can is the best way to keep Vanny and the rest of my racers safe." He winced as Minty hydroplaned into Zipchary, the two narrowly missing Snowanna as they went crashing off the track. "Relatively speaking, anyhow."

"All right." Felix nodded once. "As soon as the race is over, we'll give it a shot."

***

"I'm coming too."

Vanellope had said the words with a flat, serious tone she rarely used. The adults, quick to realize that they couldn't actually keep her out of a place she wanted to be, agreed to it immediately, and Vanellope - always slightly intimidated by the code room - took her first steps into the corridor since they'd started the patch project, standing between Ralph and King Candy as Felix secured his safety line and opened the lock.

"All right now." The handyman gave the line a quick testing tug before hopping from the platform. "This shouldn't take too long."

"How does he plan to play the memories?" Vanellope asked nervously as she watched Felix work his way up to King Candy's code. "I mean... this is a little weird...."

"I don't know," King Candy said softly. "I suppose we'll find out... are you all right?"

"Me? Psh, yeah! Uh, you?"

"You're both fine," Ralph said absently. "And we can probably use one of the monitors. Not a jumbotron, but... something."

Felix had opened the code by now - largely composed of King Candy's own neat, even threads, but with a tangle of other wires creeping around and winding through them like parasitic vines. Felix frowned slightly as he began working through.

"Okay... got main AI line here, most of Turbo's memory and similar code should be nearby. King Candy, maybe you should, I don't know, sit down?"

"Maybe. I think--" King Candy blinked, raising his hand to his chest as he felt the now-familiar bubbling in his code.

It grew stronger as Felix worked with the wires, almost burning.

"Felix, I think--"

The king glitched violently, then staggered with a sharp, agonized gasp as the glitch bracelets crackled against it.

"Von Schweetz?" Calhoun turned, one hand on her weapon as Ralph pulled Vanellope away from King Candy. "Fix-it, hold on a second!" 

"I'm fine, I--" King Candy glitched again, the bracelets crackling in response. Then again, and again, trapping him in a cycle of glitching code and the bracelets attempting to stop it.

Red pixels rippled through the blue, and there was a moment of horrified silence before King Candy gasped again and Vanellope started shrieking.

"You're _hurting_ him! It's hurting him!"

Her cries jolted the other three into action, Ralph seizing Vanellope as Felix closed off the king's code and Calhoun started rapidly pulling him back.

"Oh my land I'm sorry, I'm so sorry!"

"Wreck-it, get Vanellope out of here and get hold of the guards!"

"No! I'm not leaving!" Vanellope glitched free, yowling as Ralph grabbed her again. "Let me _go_ , Ralph!" 

"Kid, no, stay calm, stay back!" 

Vanellope started to protest, glitching as much from distress as desire to move.

"Stop it! I--the bracelets, they're making it worse! Take them off of him!" 

"Go ahead," Calhoun said tersely. "Vault's locked and nothing' getting past me." 

Ralph nodded and came forward to remove the bracelets, stammering out an apology as he pinched one of the king's wrists between massive fingers in his haste, and hurriedly stepped back.

"Now just concentrate," Vanellope called, voice trembling. "Ju-just focus on... on staying together. Okay?"

A moment more and the glitches subsided, leaving King Candy huddled on the floor. Felix started to come forward, crumpling his cap in his hands again.

"I-I'm sorry, I didn't think it would--"

He cut off as Calhoun caught him by the shoulder.

"Which color?" she asked softly. "Is anyone sure which color was stronger?"

No one answered. Vanellope stepped forward again after a moment, fidgeting and glitching nervously.

"King Gramps?" she asked, gulping. Then, more softly, "Grampa?"

He shook his head slightly, and Calhoun hefted her rifle with a growl.

"Turbo. All right you lit--"

"No."

The voice was meek and barely above a whisper, and would have been inaudible if not for the corridor's acoustics. After a moment he stood, avoiding their eyes as he wrung trembling hands.

"I... my... my n-name is Draft."


	7. The First Victim

"My name is Draft."

For a moment they were frozen, the only sound a faint jingling produced by King Candy - Draft's - fidgeting.

"Draft, huh?" Calhoun finally said. Her voice was a bit faint with bewilderment; she cleared her throat sharply, and her tone was stronger and drier when she spoke again. "You sure about that?"

He blinked slowly, considering the question.

"Sometimes."

Ralph caught Vanellope as she started forward, lifting her gently and backing toward the exit.

"Ralph--!"

"Get Drift," he murmured. "He's at Tapper's with one of the Marines."

"Ralph, I--"

"I know. We'll fix it. Take one of the guards with you, and stay with Markowski once you show Drift the way here. Got it?"

"I...." She peeked over at the king's form, wincing as he glitched in a burst of red, and nodded. "I got it."

She hopped down and hurried off; Ralph made sure she was talking to the nearest guard before heading back to the others. They all looked up, Draft giving him a pensive look.

"That was a good idea." His tone was less meek, oddly casual. "Send her away. He hates her, you know. He hates all of you. But he _hates_ her."

"Turbo?" Felix asked cautiously.

"Yes. The king doesn't hate her. I don't hate her. Or the king. But the racers, especially the Princess and that Taffyta, no matter what it was always them on the cabinet, they were the ones attracting players and not him, it would always be them that people came to see and not him and she was supposed to pay for that, supposed to--"

He glitched again, blue pixels sparking furiously amidst the red. Calhoun stepped closer, kneeling a bit out of easy reach.

"Let him talk, von Schweetz," she said softly. "I'm not a fan either but it might get us closer to fixing this whole mess for good." She waited until the glitches stopped and then stood, crossing her arms. "Okay then. Draft. You've got the floor. How did this happen and why haven't you made a peep before now?"

"Couldn't. Wasn't allowed." He frowned. "I think? Maybe."

Calhoun scowled.

"Helpful." 

Felix laid a hand to her wrist, frowning a bit.

"All right, never mind that. What're you doin' here?" 

"He needed me. At first. I was good at coding. He wasn't."

"So why'd you help him?" Ralph's tone was a low growl; Draft stepped back slightly, voice growing meek again.

"I... not in Sugar Rush. He'd learned by then. He learned. I didn't have to do anything at all. Before then we... we learned. He learned. I mean... we did both learn. I was good at figuring it out." 

He paused, considering a moment. 

"The whole time - the whole time - his thoughts, they were hard to tell from mine. Always, he was getting angrier and angrier. We shared code so it was hard to tell my thoughts from his. You know? And the longer, the longer we didn't have a game it was... buzzing. More and more, because we didn't have a game, a place that accepted our code. So there was both, buzzing, and angry. All mixed. So he wanted the code back from Tapper so I let him. And we hid inside the king and it made the game like us and the buzzing stopped and he was... less angry." He tilted his head, looking at Felix. "Is it true that you learned how to code characters into games properly?"

Felix fidgeted, clearing his throat nervously.

"That's... um... classified information."

"Oh. I'm sorry." Draft hunkered a bit, nervously gripping the king's cane. "I didn't mean... I'm sorry. Don't be angry. All right?" 

"I'm uh... I'm not angry...." Felix cleared his throat and rubbed back of his neck. "Uh, so. Sharin' code? I... can't say I noticed anything like that."

"And you're getting good at coding. You're a lead character and everything. Lead characters know how to get into code but they don't always understand right away. Turbo didn't understand but I do. If you're not a lead you might be good at it but it's hard... hard to learn the key to get in... like my mind was resisting... I was at Tapper's all night almost, all night, writing and writing until it looked right and I was still surprised when it worked."

"Ah, well, that's... certainly true," Felix said. "But can we go back to sharin' code? Is it like what happened t'King Candy?"

"Oh, no. It was just what gave him the idea." He rocked on his heels. "Did you know? It's hard for Turbo to take over. Since the King's code is properly set and his AI lines are all connected." A shiver, and he shot them a guilty look. "I... I helped him take over, that day we fought... with the code... tangled... sharing code... I didn't know how not to. With both of us pushing... and he could get at the Princess... it was easier... but he was still fighting. Maybe Turbo can't take over by himself anymore."

"Or maybe you want us to think that." Calhoun frowned, shaking her head slightly. "How about we stay on task? How are you sharing code?" 

"Oh. Yes. That." He cleared his throat. "It was... was right after Road Blasters... Turbo knew how to get in the code. He thought... I think he thought... if we did something new... something different... they'd pay attention. To him. We weren't getting played much. But I saw him, I saw him going toward our code vault. I followed. I always followed after Turbo and Drift." He sighed. "Drift wasn't scary. Turbo wasn't either before Road Blasters."

"So Turbo crashed the game."

Ralph jumped slightly at Drift's voice as the racer came up beside him; Calhoun and Felix both looked at him sharply, postures defensive, and then relaxed as Drift approached. Draft dropped the cane, staring at him.

"Oh no. Now I'm... I don't... there was the buzzing but I've never _seen things_ , I...."

"Hey. Take it easy." Drift's voice was low and calm, cajoling. "It's okay. Just tell us what happened." 

"Yes. Okay. Good. I will." Draft took a deep breath. "I followed him into the code room. I was curious. I wasn't afraid of him back then. He wasn't scary then. But he wasn't good at coding. He messed it up. I fixed it. I was good at it. I liked puzzles." 

"I know you did. Then what?"

"I fixed it. But something... wasn't fixed. Turbo was strange. Do you remember? He was angry. He was mad at me for being good at something he wasn't because he was mad about RoadBlasters. And he couldn't remember our names anymore. Just angry all the time, acting strange. You remember?" He waited a moment for Drift's nod. "And then after he ran off during open hours he went to the code again and I followed again, I didn't know what to do... he was... messing with my code. Pulling wires. It hurt. I tried to stop him... I think... I think... he was trying to get my knowledge. I was good at coding. He wasn't. So he messed up. Our code... just... melded." He shivered, shaking his head. "I was good at it and he wanted to be, so... he... panicked I think, and he was angry, and...."

"Hey. Hey, it's okay." Drift stepped closer, still hesitant. "So the codes are...?"

"Merged. Compressed together. Like the bug code. We left and the Surge Protector thought we were you. If you think, you can switch. Look like... any of the three. The bug... or the king. Or Turbo. He was in charge so the Princess forced us to look like him. It's easiest for the king to be in charge right now, you know? And it's hard to take over from the character in charge. I helped Turbo push him down before because I didn't know how not to. I think... I think... all the regenerations, and Fix-it Felix Jr messing with it, fizzled the code a little, made a stronger glitch. Turbo tried to use it to make me help force glitches and take over. But I didn't. I didn't. The king overpowered him and I came out while he was busy doing that because I wanted to get away." 

He glitched, the king's form momentarily distorting to gray skin and blue racing suit before returning to normal. 

"It's hard to change. It's why we still looked like the king most of the time even though the Princess made us look like Turbo a little bit. But back then it was easy to look like me and that's how we escaped... and we stayed in games. Learning. We followed other leads to their coderooms and we got in and we learned. That's what happened. We learned how to disconnect AI lines. It scared me. And we learned to seal memories because we got caught. And finally we heard about Sugar Rush, and we went to take over before anyone in the arcade knew what was supposed to be. I had Turbo's thoughts all the time, and there was the buzzing from never being in the right game, but we hid in the King and it made the game like us and the buzzing went away and Turbo was less angry." He frowned. "I... I don't... I don't think it had to be that way... I think Felix knows how to put characters in games, and... the King, I liked him, he said we could stay, and this game is nice, I would have liked that."

Drift sighed and laid his hands on Draft's shoulders.

"That's... great. That's real swell, Draft. And it doesn't have to be this way. Maybe we can still fix this. You're good at code, right? Do you know how to fix this?"

"I... y-yes. I think so." Draft was quiet a moment. "They're on the right track. Install the patches. Complete the game. Turbo locked up the other racers because their memories weren't in the vault - they would have known Vanellope was the Princess. And they would have known the King was different. The Princess knew. The whole first day she was suspicious. She knew something was wrong with him even with her memories of Turbo gone. Sometimes Sour Bill still knew something was wrong. Wreck-it Ralph made him remember some of it. So they would have known, but also if the game is completed then it'll soft reset characters to process it all. King Candy has never been reset. Regenerated but not reset. That... that should separate the codes."

"Okay." Drift nodded. "And then... what happens to you?" 

Draft hesitated a moment. 

"I don't... don't know. Maybe... maybe Turbo would... be loose in Sugar Rush again. I don't know if our code will separate. I don't know if the bug code will separate. We are not supposed to be eaten by bugs. Hero's Duty characters know how to be eaten by bugs and not meld. We don't. Our code doesn't know about that." He shrugged. "Turbo wanted to take over the King but he doesn't mind stayed hidden in his code. And he likes the bug code."

"Well - it's not going to do him any good," Calhoun said gruffly.

"Oh yes. You probably have a beacon rigged in every game. Doing the same thing twice was stupid. You probably have all sorts of beacons but that's probably classified. Anyway Turbo thinks the more you like the King the less likely you'll be to burn him up especially outside of his game."

"Wouldn't be our choice," Ralph said quietly. "Candy already went for a beacon on his own will to protect the kid and the game. I don't doubt he would again." 

"Yes. The King is safety. But he's also dangerous." Draft's voice grew a bit darker as he scowled. "Very dangerous. If we could get at that AI line... no!" He shook his head vigorously. "No. No. That's not what I want. I don't want that."

"That's right," Drift said quietly. "You don't. How much do we need?"

"Ten unlocked racers in total. You need seven. Ten more patches, seven with racers. One at a time, let the game go through a twenty-four hour cycle between. Complete the game. Let the code reset. Then maybe we'll be out. Reset the King. Turbo might still be loose. But maybe I can fight a little better."

"Try. Okay?" Drift asked softly. He patted Draft's shoulder. "I'll stay here. Can you help the King the way you helped Turbo? He sounds like a pretty stand-up guy, probably a better character to get behind."

"I... y-yes. I can do that. We should be okay if his code isn't messed with before reset. But if Turbo tries again, I'll help the King."

"Atta boy." Drift nodded, smiling. "I'll help out too. For now, how about letting the poor guy fix his game?"

"Yes. I... yes. That's probably a good idea. It's easier to give up control than take it. And I'll help the King." He glitched again, blue glimmering amongst red again. 

This time he relaxed, allowing the blue to take over, and King Candy swayed a moment before sitting. 

"Are... are you okay now?"

Ralph groaned as Vanellope stepped into view, little hands clasped; behind her was a bewildered-looking Markowski.

"Vanellope...."

"Hey I stayed with him." Her voice was a bit meek, unsettled, but she still managed a defiant look. 

"You _know_ what I meant." 

"Listen to Ralph, Vanny," King Candy said wearily. "That could have been dangerous, and it does create... problems."

"Pssh, I outrank you both. President trumps king and wrecker." She stepped up to King Candy, studying him a moment before hugging him fiercely. "And I... I had to make sure you were okay. That was... don't do that anymore. I forbid it!"

"All right, Vanellope." He smiled a little, patting her back. "We can certainly try not to. And we'll discuss where 'grandfather and big brother trump granddaughter and little sister' lie in the whole President-King-wrecker situation later." 

"Yeah."

"Are _you_ okay, Drift?" Felix asked quietly. The racer hesitated before nodding, running his hand across his face.

"I... y-yeah. I guess so. I dunno. And... some of that... sounded like him, but... yeah."

Calhoun sighed, shaking her head.

"Sorry I jumped the gun on you earlier. Messing with Draft's code makes sense; it's just the question of if this is information Draft wants us to have, or...."

Drift snorted, though there was no real force in it.

"You mean the question of whether that was really my brother or Turbo's reached a whole new level of crazy."

"Or manipulative," Felix said.

"Yeah, well, seems to me he's got both figured out." He turned as Vanellope and the king stood, studying them a moment. "So you're Candy von Schweetz, huh." A pause. "Sorry about all this." 

"So am I." King Candy sighed softly. "But we'll fix it... your help is appreciated. At least in, well, getting what we could... and we'll do everything we can on our end."

"Yeah." Drift nodded, straightening. "So let's go get your kids."


	8. Piecing Together

The latest installed patch was larger than its predecessors, and when the group stepped outside to head for the new track they found cleared skies shining on a new network of train tracks weaving around the familiar racetracks; the train tracks wound across Sugar Rush in a spiraling pattern culminating at an icing-covered building where they could see a candy locomotive pulling out.

  


"Whoa," Vanellope said after a moment. "That must be some track in there." She turned to the others with a grin, hands behind her back. "So let's go check it out! I bet the other racers are already down there!" 

  


She was right; by the time they reached the building - Cookiecreme Station, a chocolate-chip edifice with cookie sandwich columns and a narrow track curving around them - the other racers and a few other citizens were gathered. The kids had managed to locate the locked racer under one of the arches, and Candlehead and Swizzle ran forward to seize Vanellope and King Candy to pull them to the blue capsule.

  


" _CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'VE UNLOCKED CHIP CHOKONA!_ "

  


The racers crowded around Chip - a slightly meek-looking boy nonplussed at the attention - before scurrying off to try out the trains, tugging the adults with them; within a few minutes the station was clear, and the rest of the evening was spent exploring Sugar Rush by rail.

  


***

  


"So."

  


King Candy folded his hands as he faced Ralph, Felix, and Calhoun, Drift lingering behind them. They had returned to the castle with Vanellope a few hours before the arcade's scheduled opening; with the President in bed, the king had asked the other adults to his study to discuss the incident in the code hall.

  


"Felix, Ralph - you've been here longest, so I feel I should ask you - does Draft's story add up?"

  


"Well," Ralph said after a long moment, rubbing the back of his neck, "yeah. It does. I mean - games never crashed before. Turbo Time's first crash was the first - and every so often, games crashed after that. Not the way Turbo Time did - weird things that even players thought were different from when their computers go bonkers. Uh, y'know, like RoadBlasters, only no one saw Turbo." He glanced at Felix. "You remember Ryu? Not the current one, but...."

  


"I sure do," Felix said softly. He looked at the others and sighed. "You've met Street Fighter II characters I know. But before that, we had an original Street Fighter console. Came out the same year Turbo, uh, went Turbo as a matter of fact. Didn't have Miss Chun Li or M. Bison or most of the ones you know - just Ryu and Ken were playable. And one day, a few years down, well... Ryu went all funny. Just stuck in his idle animation. Never talked or moved or anything again, right up til the game was unplugged."

  


"Had to be the first time he figured out AI lines," Calhoun grumbled. "I haven't been around long, but I know people don't just zonk out like that, let alone permanently."

  


"I definitely know of at least one memory loss without any kind of obvious error in the software too," Ralph said. "Dirk the Doof--uh, Daring. He's still around, lucky him, but he had lost a gap of about two years. We figured it had to do with his game's Laserdisc player needing one too many repairs, but Daphne didn't have that problem...."

  


"Real lucky," Felix added. "That was right before Sugar Rush came in." 

  


"Hm." King Candy rocked back on his heels. "Well - as things stand, we're one of the lucky games as well." 

  


"All right then." Drift moved forward, standing awkwardly beside Felix. "So - we believe Draft. And... I... I believe that _was_ Draft. I mean - I want to believe it, and... and I do." He paused, drawing a deep breath. "I do. But, well, Turbo knows we - I - believe."

  


"I do too," King Candy said gently. "And we'll do what we can. As for Turbo, well - we'll deal with that when we come to it." He glitched briefly and frowned, rubbing at his wrist where one bracelet had been. "And we'll make sure this is the last game he tampers with."

  


"Right." Drift nodded once. "And uh... well... I'm not exactly Mister Popular around here, I saw that in Tappers, and I don't usually hang out in games, but... I told Draft I'd stick around, so...."

  


"Of course." King Candy smiled a bit, nodding. "You're welcome here - and we appreciate any help."

  


"Right." Drift nodded again. "And, uh... thanks." 

  


***

  


Over the next week and a half they settled into a routine: directly after the Random Roster Race they gathered at the castle while Felix installed a new patch. Felix and King Candy - with what the king suspected to be prompting from Draft - had learned by now which patches would contain a new racer; these were installed before the race to give the new addition the opportunity to watch their fellows in action before being placed on the roster. 

  


One by one, the new tracks came into being: Tarttaste Turnpike, Sodasparkle Springs, Creamsicle Colosseum, Peppervine Pass, and Tapioca Trail.

  


One by one, new racers were added to the roster: Sorghum Sourswirl, Nicola Fizzman, Lemona Goldzest, Pepprika Sweetspice, and Teaffany 'Bubbles' Pearlman.

  


Swizzle, Snowanna, and Candlehead had all been united with swap twins - Sorghum, Lemona, and Bubbles. Ralph and Felix had both been shocked to learn that Candlehead wasn't her real name (like her twin, Cakelynn Fondant preferred a descriptive nickname), while the Sugar Rush residents were as surprised that they'd thought it _was_ her name.

  


And finally, only one patch was left.

  


"It seems strange," King Candy mused as he perused the patch's open code. While they knew this final patch must contain the final racer, they had kept up the habit of examining it beforehand; Felix nodded at the King's remark, chin in hand.

  


"You're right. There's enough code in here for two, kind of...."

  


"But they're both fragmented."

  


"Hm." Calhoun knelt beside Felix, scowling at the flickering lines and zeros. "Looks like gibberish to me. But I can kind of see where some things... I mean, they don't light in sequence like the rest." 

  


"Even Vanellope's code didn't look like that in her glitching before reset," Ralph added. 

  


There was a long, uncomfortable silence, finally broken by a nervous glitch from Vanellope.

  


"You... you don't think it's him - right?" she asked softly. "I mean... made a copy of himself, or... or when Grampa's code went crazy he...." 

  


"None of the patches were nearby," King Candy said. He tugged one of his remade bracelets and frowned. "But making a copy before... I'm... not sure." He glanced at Drift, who shrugged.

  


"I don't know - that's Draft's department. I guess if he's not, uh, trying to stop you, however that'd go, it's probably okay." He shifted his weight. "And if Turbo does pop out, either from the patch or from the code reset, I'll just deck him."

  


"Get in line, chief," Ralph grumbled. "Well, there's only one way we're ever gonna know. Plug it in."

  


King Candy and Felix both nodded, Felix reaching forward to close the patch before picking it up.

  


"Well - let's go then." 

  


They headed for the coderoom, Felix and Calhoun leading and the other four trailing behind with varying degrees of apprehension.

  



	9. The Final Racer

When installed among the racer codeboxes like its predecessors the new patch seemed largely inert, only pulsing faintly instead of maintaining the steady glow of active code. Examining the rest of the code  _did_  indicate a track, though, and they once more left the castle to explore it in search of the final racer.

 

The new track had a strong smell of pastries and a hazy warmth wafting up from a thin milk stream trickling down from Lake Lattefoam. The course itself seemed to be primarily made of donuts, their holes and curves providing serial hops and steep overbanks, and various types of glaze and sprinkle left the terrain uneven and slightly unpredictable.

 

It also lacked the familiar blue capsule the unlocked racers had slept in.

 

"I don't get it," Drift muttered. He sat on a donut hole with shoulders slumped, perturbed. "He said we needed seven more racers. We're out of patches and we only have six. Where  _is_  this kid?"

 

"Well, I..." Felix rubbed the back of his neck. "I  _thought_  that was all the patches... maybe... maybe Draft is mixed up." 

 

"I don't know," King Candy said thoughtfully. He started forward along the track, pausing just before he crossed the starting line. "Of course, nine is an important number in Sugar Rush, so nine new racers makes sense, but... we must be missing a condition." 

 

"Like for unlocking pictures and stuff?" Vanellope tilted her head, tapping a cheek with one finger. "But none of the others had conditions."

 

"Unless you already met them before unlocking. Doesn't seem like we should be missing a whole kid though." Ralph surveyed the track a long moment before glancing at King Candy. "Hey, Candy - what's this place called?"

 

"Well, it's...." The king blinked, straightening. "It's Donut Derby."

 

Vanellope brightened, scurrying to his side.

 

"Hey yeah! And you're the guy who makes the donuts!"

 

She grabbed his hand and they stepped across the starting line. After a moment code shimmered on the track ahead of them, after a moment falling away to reveal a kart closely resembling the Royal Racer, though with the gleaming pale gold-brown of a glazed donut rather than sparkling vanilla-cake white. 

 

"How about that," Calhoun said as she, Ralph, and Felix approached. "Looks like your racing wasn't dummied out after all."

 

"No," King Candy said slowly. "Just locked."

 

Drift hopped from his perch and came forward, examining the kart boredly. 

 

"That's great. Happy for you and all - but then, why didn't it  _un_ lock?"

 

***

 

After the Roster Race (which King Candy politely declined to compete in despite vocal protests from the other racers), they gathered back at the castle to discuss the problem.

 

"You should have raced, y'know," Vanellope grumbled. "It's how everything  _else_  around here gets unlocked."

 

"I don't think a racer unlocks by being in races," he replied with a little smile. "The other unlocks probably had to have the default racers win a certain number of times -  _you_ might actually be the key this time."

 

"Well, I do win a lot," Vanellope said, a bit mollified. "And I haven't hit your unlock because I haven't been at it long enough. I still think you should race, though." 

 

He shook his head.

 

"That's dangerous, Vanny, with Turbo still there."

 

"He's right, Cavity Queen," Calhoun said. "Those bracelets are good but we already saw they're not perfect. Putting that twerp back in his element might give him an edge, and I don't trust his twitchy little buddy." Drift shifted slightly at the statement, scowling, but said nothing; Felix shook his head at Calhoun before stepping forward. 

 

"Well... be that as it may, I might be able to find a clue in the code if I look. Either way, we need to take Draft at value on one thing - we should try gettin' you fully unlocked before tryin' to reset. Otherwise, we might reset any progress made on unlockin' you."

 

"All right, Felix can have a look - I'll go with him." Ralph rocked on his heels slightly. "As for you, kid - weren't you meeting with the other cavities today?"

 

"Yeah," Vanellope said. "Was gonna be to celebrate the game getting all back together,  _but_  I can definitely relay the progress we haven't made here." She wrinkled her nose, mirroring Ralph's rocking motion. "Hey, King Gramps - you wanna come too? It's a racer meeting, and all...."

 

King Candy hesitated a moment. Then he nodded a bit, smiling.

 

"I'd be delighted. Shall we, then?"

 

***

 

"Got anything?" Drift asked as Felix exited the code. He and Calhoun had accompanied Ralph and Felix to the coderoom; the handyman had been examining the strange blinking patch for some time, opening it, King Candy's code, and that of other unlocked racers in turn.

 

"Think so," Felix said. "Still some mystery code in the patch, but half of it slotted into King Candy's code pretty neatly. Some popped up in Vanellope's too - nothing looks hostile!" he added hastily as Ralph shifted his weight. "So she's probably the answer. But here's the thing - I tried looking for unlock conditions in the kids. Turns out, for instance, Coco added code to Adorabeezle, and when I tried looking for things that looked like conditions she had a 'AW ten' code. Sorghum had 'SM ten', and so on. Y'see?"

 

"No," Drift said flatly. "I do  _not_  see. Who do I look like, Draft?"

 

"Uh,  _yeah_?" Ralph muttered. Drift glared, pointing at him.

 

"You - shut it. And you," he pointed at Felix. "Explain like I  _haven't_  spent weeks digging in code."

 

"Er... sorry." Felix blushed, crumpling his cap in his hands. "All it means is that t'unlock a new one, a specific default has t'win a certain number of times."

 

"Vanellope's won way more than ten races, though," Ralph said. Felix nodded.

 

"Uh huh, and what's more, King Candy's code is 'VVS minus one'."

 

"So she's probably right." Calhoun grimaced, shaking her head. "He might have to race - Turbo or not." 

 

"Yes ma'am. Alternative's trying to find a way to reset him pre-unlock - and that might make things worse."

 

"Okay then." Drift turned and headed back out of the corridor. The other three watched him go before Ralph shrugged and stepped after him.

 

"He's right; we better go talk to Candy."

 

***

 

King Candy was already coming back into the throne room when Ralph, Felix, Calhoun, and Drift came out of the corridor; Drift walked straight to him, speaking without preamble.

 

"You gotta race."

 

"I... pardon?" 

 

"You need to race, von Schweetz," Calhoun said. "It might be the unlock - the sooner you unlock the sooner you reset, and the sooner we can get our hands on Turbo without getting said hands on you. And maybe Draft," she added after a moment.

 

King Candy frowned, lacing fidgety fingers.

 

"Well - do you think... I don't know. I mean, trying a reset first might be better - safer. And we might be able to extract without putting me on a track with anywhere from eight to two dozen of my racers...."

 

"Oh it'll be safe." Calhoun smirked. "After hours. Me, my guys, and Wreck-it."

 

Ralph nodded.

 

"Turbo tries anything, I'll be there to wreck him. Apologies in advance if it goes bad - but between Draft and the bracelets I think there's just as good a chance of it going right."

 

"Well - thank you for that, wrecking and all." The king smiled a bit, glancing at Felix. "What do you think?"

 

Felix took a deep breath and nodded. 

 

"I think they're right - you need to race. I tried comparing it to other code, and - I think you're supposed t'start out NPC, and a player usin' Vanellope has to beat you. But I think it really is safer after hours - more security, fewer player witnesses."

 

"So all I gotta do is beatcha, huh?"

 

Vanellope strode into the throne room, grinning as she lightly shouldered Drift aside to peer up at King Candy.

 

"I think I can swing that. Question is, though - do you  _wanna_  race?"

 

"I...." King Candy paused, then nodded once. "Well, yes. I mean, of  _course_ I do."

 

"Settled, then." Vanellope tilted her head, hands behind her back. "See, it's kind of a presidential decree. Anybody in Sugar Rush who wants to race, gets to. Heck, Sour Bill can race after hours if he feels like it." She considered. "That kart, though. Not that the donut thing isn't cool, but... it... kinda looks like the one he used, huh."

 

"Well, yes." King Candy grimaced a bit. "I was... a bit surprised. I mean, it stands to reason - Royal Racer is technically  _yours_  after all, but...."

 

"But there's a reason we stashed that crummy thing in the garage." She turned to the double doors and whistled shrilly. "Okay, guys, bring it in!"

 

The doors creaked open, pushed aside by Rancis, Swizzle, Zipchary, and Gloyd. A moment later the other racers crowded in, several of them pushing a bakery kart, and Vanellope danced over to it with a giggle.

 

"Way better, right? Look, look - it even has your name on it!" 

 

"That it does." King Candy smiled a bit as he perused the bright, slightly uneven icing letters and the carefully (if inexpertly) applied brown, gold, and purple frosting and the thick minidonut wheels. "Better indeed - in fact, I think this will do perfectly. Thank you," he added quietly. The racers giggled amongst themselves, moving aside as he approached; there was less hesitance in his motion now, more bounce, and Vanellope clapped her hands gleefully.

 

"Okay then! You can practice on my old training track to get used to it, just like I did! And then, at the Roster Race tomorrow?" She pointed at him, squinting one eye as if taking aim. "I'm gonna beat the filling out of you."

 

He laughed, nodding as he climbed into the kart.

 

"We'll see, Vanny. We'll see."


	10. The Race

It was rare to see a full line-up for a Random Roster Race; while a few diehards like Vanellope, Taffyta, and Citrusella competed every day, there were almost always at least two or three who chose to sit out. As the total number of racers increased full line-ups had become rarer still, to the point that there had never been a full field of all default and unlocked racers.

 

All twenty-four had turned up to participate in King Candy's comeback race.

 

"Gonna be one rowdy track if the races I've seen with a smaller number are anything to go by," Drift said with a tiny grin as he surveyed the gathering. He and Sour Bill were flanking King Candy as they approached the track, and he elbowed the king lightly. "Think you can handle them?"

 

"Oh, I think I'll manage." He shrugged, glancing at the other racer. "Maybe even enough to take  _you_  on some time. After-hours races and all."

 

"Markaschino Bingbing and Iceabel Winterpop submitted a request for an official NPC league," Sour Bill said. "The President wants to put it in effect once the current issue is solved."

 

"Fogey league, huh." Drift shook his head slightly. "Guess I'd qualify. Not sure if I'll ever race again, but I'll keep it in mind. You  _are_  feeling confident though, aren't you? Guy who wouldn't even dream of racing yesterday and here you are now." He elbowed King Candy again as Vanellope finished up a chat with the other children and scurried toward them. "Look out, here comes Princessident von Shenanigans herself."

 

"Hey guys!" Vanellope covered the remaining distance with few buoyant skips, nearly colliding with King Candy before she managed to stop. "About time you showed up! I was starting to think maybe you were scared."

 

"A little," King Candy admitted, "but not of you."

 

"Oh- _ho_ , that sounds like a challenge!" She poked his nose, grinning fiercely. "You better live up to it. No chickening out, and no throwing the race!"

 

He drew himself up, feigning offense.

 

"I'll have you know I've never thrown a race in my life!"

 

"Uh, you've never  _raced_  before. Just practice."

 

"Yes, and I threw exactly zero of those practices."

 

"Yeah, yeah. Just race like you mean it, King Gramps. As soon as Ralph and the others finish setting up security, we're on!"

 

"All done, actually," Ralph said as he approached. "We've got Felix and Kohut at the coderoom in case Turbo pops up there. Calhoun's gonna be following the race on her cruiser." He jerked his thumb toward a dark shape over the leaderboard. "And she's got marines stationed at the checkpoints you two put guards at. Green and Markowski are at the bridge with Duncan and Wynchell, and the Surge Protector's got the gate to GSC netted as a last line of defense."

 

"Very thorough," King Candy said, nodding. 

 

"Yup. And I'll be here at the finish line - you should automatically reset like Vanellope did. Wherever he pops up, he's pinned down." Ralph knelt, reaching toward the king. "So let's just have those bracelets."

 

King Candy frowned, tugging the bracelets lightly.

 

"Is that really necessary? I thought...."

 

"Sorry. Felix said we don't know how they'll affect the reset."

 

Vanellope prodded him again, wagging a finger. 

 

"No chickening out, I said. Take 'em off." She patted his hand lightly and smiled. "I trust you. So you gotta trust Ralphie and Sarge and that Draft guy, okay?"

 

He nodded after a moment, unsnapping the bracelets and passing them to Ralph. 

 

"All right." 

 

"Draft'll look out for you," Drift said quietly. "He promised."

 

King Candy nodded, watching as Ralph tossed the bracelets up and Calhoun swooped down to catch them; he glitched briefly with nerves but felt only the barest echo of Turbo's presence, and nodded again.

 

"All right. So far, so good."

 

Sour Bill cleared his throat, drawing himself up.

 

"If that's all cleared up, then we need to get started." He waved toward the stands where candy fans chanted and cheered in anticipation; Vanellope nodded once, seizing King Candy by the hand. 

 

"Okay then! Let's go!"

 

***

 

"Citizeeeeens of Sugar Rush!" Vanellope bellowed as they burst into the royal box, not even giving Bill time to announce her. "We've had a crazy past few weeks, huh!" She grinned as the crowd roared in response. "That's right! Way back when we met Coco, I told you great things were coming to Sugar Rush - and whaddaya know, I was right!" A sweeping gesture toward the gathered racers nearly sent her over the railing; Sour Bill and King Candy both hastily grabbed her while on the ground Ralph scrambled to position himself beneath her, and she laughed giddily as she waved them off.

 

"And now, at last, we have our usual Random Roster Race  _and_  the race for our final unlock - the one, the only, the  _actual_  King Candy! That's right guys, two events for the price of one! Not that we make you pay to see the races, but still!"

 

King Candy chuckled, waving as Vanellope zipped behind him to push him forward. Below, the racers waved back, a few of them hopping or waving with both hands or both, and his smile widened; some had welcomed him right away and some had stayed ambivalent for weeks, but they all looked united now.

 

Vanellope was talking again; he turned to hear what she was saying.

 

"Anyway, since King Gramps gave all the coins in his inventory away, I'm  _generously_  donating one for the race today - so!" She tossed a gold coin to him and tugged the rope to activate the coin collector. "Go on, you go first!"

 

He nodded, catching the coin and tossing it out in the same motion. Vanellope bounced with excitement as the announcer belted out his name, and he couldn't help joining her. 

 

One by one, the other racers popped onto the board; Vanellope slid down to her kart, and he quickly followed.

 

"Everybody ready?" Vanellope yowled over the engines. The other racers - King Candy included in spite of himself - shouted an affirmative, and she grinned.

 

"Well okay then, let's go!"

 

***

 

With twenty-five racers involved, the pandemonium was immediate. Colorful karts swerved around each other at random, vying for position; several minor fenderbenders occured before they even reached the first jump, though no one was out of the running yet.

 

As they sped up the ramp for the jump into Gumball Gorge, Torvald clipped the back of King Candy's kart; he just barely avoided spinning out and just barely made the jump, and behind him he heard her yelp as she failed to clear it.

 

She'd regenerate at the starting line in a moment; he'd seen it before. Ahead, there were more racers and giant gumball obstacles to worry about. 

 

He swept around a gumball and braked sharply as Swizzle cut in front of him, the deceleration nearly putting him into a second gumball; he swerved around that to pass Swizzle again and pull even with Adorabeezle. Nougetsia was a few lengths ahead and had nabbed an Ice Cream Cannon power up, and he could see her taking aim. That would almost certainly take care of Adorabeezle, since the sisters actively avoided being on the roster together and usually aimed for each other before bothering with other racers. 

 

It was misaimed; he picked up a Sugar Rush power up and had to immediately used the speed boost to avoid the ice cream. 

 

Strange; they were usually spot-on with that.

 

No matter. The boost put him ahead of Adorabeezle and the on-track boost shot him ahead of Nougetsia and Lemona at the second jump, and he swept past Pepprika, Gloyd, and Citrusella just in time to avoid Sweet Seekers from Lemona.

 

Tenth place. Vanellope was just ahead, accelerating into Layer Cake Hill as she tried to catch Jubileena; she managed it as he approached, and Jubileena launched a Cherry Bomb that nearly hit him as he too passed her.

 

Almost as if she'd seen him coming and aimed for him instead of Vanellope.

 

Just like Nougetsia had missed Adorabeezle.

 

No time to think about it - he glitched as the Cherry Bomb exploded, Jubileena crying out in dismay as he struggled for control. There was another faint ripple of Turbo, quickly pushed down; Draft, it seemed, was doing his job, and he could just see Calhoun's shadow. 

 

_Don't panic. Just race._

 

He accelerated hard to pass Vanellope, chuckling at her half-indignant, half-delighted shout. 

 

Eighth place. 

 

They were near the top of the hill now - he could see Taffyta, Rancis, and Candlehead driving in neat formation as they often did, joined today by Coco and Chip. As he approached he heard Rancis call to the others, and they closed ranks.

 

No doubt in his mind now - this was a concentrated effort, and he laughed as they headed into the jump.

 

"I might have known you were all up to something!" he shouted over the wind as they landed; he could hear them giggling as Candlehead shouted back in the least contrite voice he'd ever heard.

 

"Sorry, Mister King!" 

 

The track widened as it headed up Ice Cream Mountain, and he made a move to pass Chip on the outside. Chip, never as timid as he seemed once his mind was made up, fought back, nearly forcing him into Rancis, who swerved aside and spun out. It gave just enough opening to pull ahead, and he shot into the caverns before they could recover.

 

Second place, with Snowanna in sight. He steered around a Sticky Slick she released as she noticed him and pressed forward onto the narrowest strip of track.

 

Just after the steep downgrade, Nicola came in from the shortcut; her hefty kart nearly sent him over the edge, and he just barely recovered in time.

 

"Sorry!" she howled, sounding as apologetic as Candlehead had. He tried to reply, to remark that he was beginning to feel singled out. Instead he glitched violently, alien rage boiling up at the audacity of using  _his_  shortcut to try to hold  _him_  back, the idea trying to tangle into his own thoughts and impressions to push to the surface and press through, and he very nearly panicked until something else pushed against it, helped to separate his own thoughts back out and dismiss the rest.

 

Another glitch, another moment to regain control, and a silent thanks to Draft - then he and Nicola had caught Snowanna, the three of them nearly tangling together on the sparse track.

 

Then it widened again, and Vanellope sped by laughing as they left the caves. He'd been too busy trying to fight off the other two and avoid a pileup to realize she'd been lurking behind them.

 

With more room he was able to break away from the girls; he lost speed in doing so and Snowanna pulled ahead while Nicola briefly lost control.

 

He could already see Vanellope crossing the finish line. Snowanna was just behind her, and he came in behind  _her_.

 

Third place, and just for a moment Turbo's fury and Draft's fear were loud and clear.

 

Then it fizzled. The finish line was glowing, and as he stopped and hopped from the kart he could see his own outline shimmering with white light and blue code.

 

" _CONGRATULATIONS! YOU'VE UNLOCKED KING CANDY!_ "

 

For a moment, all was quiet. Then Vanellope glitched to him, reaching out.

 

"Well? Well, how do you feel?" She took a half-step closer, eyes wide and worried, and he shook his head slightly.

 

"I feel... perfectly normal."

 

"Hm. Okay. Okay, good. Glitch." She glitched behind him to demonstrate as Drift and Ralph jogged toward them and Calhoun landed. "Like I told you when you were braceleted. Focus, concentrate, glitch!"

 

"I am, I am!" He moved closer to Ralph and Calhoun as he spoke; after a moment his form wavered in blue pixels.

 

"Aw, you didn't warp," Vanellope pouted. "Never mind, did it feel okay?"

 

"I think so."

 

"Felix says the wires that weren't part of your code dissolved," Calhoun reported. "No sign of Turbo or Draft." 

 

King Candy frowned. 

 

"They can't have just disappeared. The bridge?"

 

Calhoun held up a finger as she spoke into her com. Then she shook her head.

 

"Green and Markowski report nothing. The track guards, nothing." She scowled, shaking her head again. "You're clean. He's not in the code room. And he's not running. But I don't believe he disappeared just like that."

 

They were all quiet a moment, the returning Sugar Racers huddling together to watch the group while Vanellope took hold of both Ralph and King Candy's hands.

 

"Then Draft was probably right," Drift said finally. He scowled, arms folded as he stared up at the jumbotron.

 

"Turbo is loose somewhere in Sugar Rush."


	11. The Missing Invader

"All right. Pretty sure you all realize this, but we need to find Turbo before the arcade opens."

 

They had all assembled back at the castle, leaving cookie guards and Marines stationed at the game's exit, the kart bakery, the code room, and locations along the tracks that had been deemed potentially sensitive. Sergeant Calhoun had taken charge, and looked out over the small crowd of racers, parents, and a few NPCs they suspected Turbo might target.

 

"So - what we need now is any ideas on where he might be. Where he might have popped up after being purged from von Schweetz's code. Hidden areas, code pockets, that kind of thing."

 

"I think... there might be something at tracks," Crumbelina said after a moment. "Once at my lake - before everything was reset - I saw something."

 

"Yeah?" Calhoun glanced at Felix, who stepped closer to Crumbelina and crouched slightly to match her height. 

 

"What was it? Do you remember?" Crumbelina glanced nervously at her friends and Felix smiled, removing his cap. "It's all right - just tell us what comes t'mind, an' we'll take care of it."

 

"Well...." Crumbelina removed her own hat, half-mirroring Felix's posture. "Some of... of the tracks shifted a little. While the old ki--while  _Turbo_  was in charge. My Lake Lattefoam was one. He told me it was an upgrade. To change the course a little for variety. But...." She frowned, lips pursed. "I saw something, just once. Where the track changed directions for the... whatever he did. At turn three. There was something sparkling there, but it was gone - the lake covered it." 

 

"Turbo tweaked a few areas as patches came in," King Candy said slowly. "I thought he was trying to fake an upgrade, but it's possible he was trying to direct attention from where new code was supposed to connect. And where new code laces in... well, it stands to reason that'd be vulnerable. Does anyone else remember seeing anything?" He looked at the other racers who'd had new tracks installed near their own. "Adorabeezle? Candlehead? Swizzle?"

 

"Sorry, Mister King," Candlehead said softly after a moment. "I never saw anything." The others were all shaking their heads, and King Candy nodded.

 

"It's all right. He would have been... very careful. Crumbelina might only remember because she was the most recent, so the memories come out more easily."

 

"Do you... um... want me to show you where?" Crumbelina asked, her voice a quavering squeak. 

 

"That's all right, sweetheart." King Candy shook his head. "In fact, no one should go near those altered areas for now, understand?"

 

"Default racers probably shouldn't go anywhere alone to begin with," Ralph said. "I mean, Draft said Turbo had it out for the kids whose pictures are on the console. Big ones'll be Vanellope and Taffyta - Draft says Turbo hated them both because of those big pictures."

 

There was a long silence before Taffyta finally spoke up, eyes on her own laced fingers.

 

"H-he said that? Because I thought... he was always... he said...."

 

"Hey." Vanellope, who had been settled uneasily on Ralph's shoulder since the trek back to the castle, glitched down to face Taffyta. "He said a lot of stuff. I mean, heck, he convinced Ralph he cared about  _me_  for a little while!" She glanced back at Ralph as he shuffled sheepishly. "Right?"

 

"Uh... yeah. Right."

 

"Oh." Taffyta still hadn't looked up, and Vanellope sighed.

 

"Hey, look. You're a top-notch racer, right? Almost as good as me. So he probably liked that at least. Just uh... don't... don't think it'd make any... what I mean is, do like Ralph says and be careful."

 

Taffyta nodded slightly, and Calhoun straightened. 

 

"All right. No racer unattended - that's gonna have to mean you too, Drift." She waited for his nod before continuing. "I'm going to stick around with you and the von Schweetzes, most likely top targets. I need the racers with altered tracks to tell us where the alterations actually were. After that we'll have crews go out to each and do a thorough sweep from there - we've got about nine and a half hours remaining til opening, more than enough." 

 

"Probably a good idea to stay out of obvious areas," Drift said. "If your cookie-and-clunker collective flushes him out, he'll probably head to the bridge or back here to the code. Unless Draft gets control and he comes to you?" His voice rose hopefully on the last phrase; Calhoun hesitated a moment before nodding.

 

"Can't rule out that chance. But you're right; we'll move everyone to low-interest areas while we search. Let's go."

 

***

 

Along with Calhoun, Ralph, and Felix, Markowski and two cookie guards stuck close to Vanellope, Drift, and King Candy; the group was largely silent as they made their way down to the junkyard, a low-interest area with plenty of open space to make it difficult for anything to approach unnoticed.

 

"Me and Ralph met at Taffyta's Candy Cane Forest, but the junkyard was where we really started talking," Vanellope said suddenly.

 

"It was where you all came to find me as well," King Candy remarked. "Everything comes back to the same places when you get down to it."

 

"Yeah, well. You're not allowed to hide from me anymore." Vanellope stuck his tongue out at him. "Anyway if we both keep running off to the same places you won't be able to--hey, look!"

 

She glitched ahead of them, moving toward Diet Cola Mountain. Once atop a particularly large jawbreaker she paused, bobbing up on tiptoe; the others hurried after her, Ralph reaching out to try to catch hold of her.

 

Too late - she glitched ahead again, stopping only to point. 

 

"Look at that - it's open! I bet it's what the mystery code was!"

 

She was moving ahead again, blue code bursting over her in her excitement even as she ran normally.

 

"Kid, hold on. I don't think--"

 

"The mountain was what Sarge called low-interest, right? Nothing close to here was altered, not even for Sodasparkle Springs' patch. It doesn't connect anywhere." She waited for the others to catch up. "Turbo never knew about this place, so there's probably nothing here he'd worry about."

 

"Yes, but he knows  _now_ ," King Candy said gently. "That couldn't be helped, even if he hadn't seen you go in the night you were reset."

 

"Yeah but there's nothing there now. I just want a peek and then we'll go to the junkyard, okay?"

 

She glitched away again before they could answer and the others hurried into the mountain after her, catching up as she stood by the hot springs.

 

"Whoa, it's... guys, look." 

 

Nothing aside from the now-open entrance seemed to have changed, but code was flickering in the mountain, blue sparkles flashing here and there. They all paused, watching it a long moment, before Ralph cleared his throat.

 

"I don't like this. Come on, kid."

 

"But what's happening?" Vanellope frowned, walking along the track, idly following a racing line of code.

 

"I was trying to use the mountain's code to get to the bottom of my own, before Felix brought in the bracelets," King Candy said. "Looking for matched connections. It looks a bit different now...."

 

"Maybe this is where final processing for newly connected code comes through?" Felix said. "A place to run it through in an area that won't hurt gameplay or endanger established code?"

 

"Sure, like a debug room." Calhoun shrugged. "Let's let it do its thing. Fix-it's probably right, it has to do with the new code coming in."

 

"Or maybe it's just where the game spits out junk code."

 

They all jumped - even Calhoun - at the new voice. It was garbled, warping randomly; it took them a moment to work out the words, and the echoing in the chamber made it difficult to pinpoint. 

 

Then Drift caught Calhoun's arm and pointed, paling slightly as he gestured toward a glimmer of red immediately distinct from the glow of the hot springs. She tapped Felix urgently and he caught Ralph's attention, the alert moving quickly along the group until they were all facing the strangely flickering figure on the track above them.

 

"After all," Turbo said as they focused with some difficulty on his stuttering, glitch-ridden form, "it's where  _you_  wound up - isn't it,  _glitch_?"


	12. Scattering

"Vanellope get down here," Ralph hissed. He was already making his way toward her; Vanellope had frozen in place, staring up at Turbo even as the rest of the group had difficulty focusing on him as his body glitched, wobbled, and echoed itself in movement.

 

"You picked a bad time," Calhoun growled out as she too moved forward, waving Drift, Felix, and King Candy back while Markowski and the two cookie guards fanned out on either side of her. "You're standing right on top of Sugar Rush's beacon. If the Mentos doesn't crush your miserable carcass the volcano'll--"

 

"What, someone's gonna set it off with all the out-of-game buddies sitting on top of it?" Turbo grinned, glancing at King Candy. "Call it in, then. Prove me wrong."

 

King Candy said nothing. Turbo nodded slowly.

 

"Thought so. Not gonna risk these losers, and not gonna risk COM2 either." He flickered fitfully, blue scattering through his form, and Drift clenched his fists.

 

"Draft," he grated as he moved out alongside Markowski, brushing past the Marine to make his way toward Vanellope. "His name is Draft and  _you know it_."

 

"Do I?" Turbo muttered absently as he too moved toward Vanellope; she gulped and finally moved herself, taking a tiny step back as he glitched more violently, barbed claws and colorful insect shell flashing and fading. He frowned slightly, looking at his hands. "Problem though. Volcano's a problem. See... I  _like_  being the bug." He glanced at King Candy and smiled, the expression oddly gentle. "You should try embracing it, old man. It's... I like being the bug. Yeah. You're right, I do know his name."

 

"So call him that." Drift shrugged a bit. "And let him go."

 

"No." Turbo shrugged lazily; like all his movements it echoed strangely, leaving small ghosts of previous positions. "Even if I knew how... having hold of that loser makes me stronger. Having hold of that little loser king made me powerful. The bug does too. I need that."

 

"You didn't used to call us losers."

 

"King Candy," Felix whispered as Drift spoke, "can you glitch t' Vanellope, get her back to us? She's too hung up, an' Turbo's watchin' Tammy Jean an' the others more than us."

 

King Candy nodded slightly, watching Vanellope; after a moment his form wavered and glitched.

 

Like at the racetrack, the glitching didn't change his position. He frowned, glanced at Felix, and tried again.

 

He was still standing beside Felix when the flickering pixels faded.

 

"It isn't working," he hissed, nervous glitches still bubbling over him. "I think... stronger glitches have displaced me before, but it's not working  _now_ , I don't know how to...."

 

Felix shook his head slightly, laying a hand on the king's shoulder to forestall another attempt.

 

"Sorry - was just a thought. Come on - we'll try it the old-fashioned way. Can't really hope he'll forget aboutcha, but I'll keep in sight an' try t'keep his attention with the others." 

 

King Candy nodded, shifting his grip on his cane as he began to edge forward, and Felix moved around a cookie guard to begin making his way toward Turbo in plain sight. He winced as King Candy glitched again - whether trying to glitch to Vanellope again or simply out of fear Felix couldn't tell - but Turbo didn't seem to notice the flashes of blue, instead focusing on Drift.

 

"Hey, Draft," Drift was saying, voice low and pleasant as he changed tactics. "As far as I understand your show got stolen in a big way, remember?"

 

"I didn't steal anything!" Turbo hissed, static and bug features and small bursts of blue rippling across him. "It was  _my_  game,  _mine_  to take control of, and now that I've made this one mine you think you can take it?"

 

"You don't have to put up with this," Drift said evenly.

 

"No. I don't." Turbo shuddered, Cybug wings briefly glowing at his back. Vanellope was still perilously close but Turbo was surrounded by now, spears and guns leveled at him and Ralph trying to insinuate himself between Turbo and Vanellope as King Candy approached. "I don't--"

 

The wavering glitches burst across him from the center out; for a shocked, silent moment there was only the vaguest shape of a sprite before slowly, painfully pulling back together.

 

"Hard," Draft whispered, rubbing his arms and shaking his head. The glitches were no better, small bits of code randomly flowing off of him and reforming. "Can't keep together. But scattered we might have a chance. Find it all and rebuild the broken. Taking the game took too much - scattered we might have a chance."

 

"What do you mean?" Felix asked. He stepped closer, frowning, but Draft merely shook his head.

 

"We... we can make the glitches stop," Vanellope squeaked out. The spell Turbo's presence seemed to cast over her was broken now; she moved up beside Ralph, wide-eyed as King Candy crept up on her other side. 

 

"Not glitches." Draft shook his head. "Not exactly. We're scattering, pulling all apart. It might be safer." 

 

"What are you talking about?" Drift stepped closer, almost within reach, and Draft shrank back as he gave him a frightened look.

 

Drift reached forward and Draft's code scattered entirely again, a Cybug silhouette briefly visible before the long barbed claws sliced at Vanellope.

 

Ralph, Drift, and King Candy all moved to block his path, Calhoun cursing as she and Markowski fired a moment too late; Ralph was quickest and cried out as the claws slashed across his forearm.

 

The bug was gone again. They could hear a soft laugh from Turbo, and turned to see him standing over Vanellope, reaching to seize her by the back of the neck; she tried to glitch away and gasped as it only reacted with Turbo's unstable code, sending colorful shocks over both.

 

"I was a little too easy on this game last time. Wasn't I?"

 

"Maybe because this isn't what you want," Felix said slowly. He stepped up beside Ralph, glancing at his friend's injured arm and then back at Turbo as the racer snorted derisively.

 

"Sure it is. This is my game. The glitch is in the way." He squeezed Vanellope roughly, their code scattering briefly. "Now I just--"

 

"Draft." Drift was moving forward again, though he froze as Vanellope cried out again. "You had it, for a minute. Come on now - you liked this game as it should be, right?"

 

Turbo scowled, but didn't retaliate against Vanellope again; blue was rippling over his white again and Ralph stepped forward, encouraged. 

 

"You remember saying that, don't you? And Drift's right - this is your show to run."

 

"You couldn't overpower Turbo back then," King Candy said gently. "That's all right. You can now - so please, Draft, let her go."

 

For several seconds Turbo only stared at them.

 

Then his posture changed subtly, his features softer and meeker, and he shoved Vanellope toward them as blue entirely replaced Turbo's white and red. Vanellope glitched forward, King Candy and Ralph both moving to catch her before Ralph simply swept both von Schweetzes into his arms.

 

Draft sighed, relaxing a bit, and smiled weakly as he stepped away. 

 

"I'm sorry. Sorry I didn't try harder before."

 

"You won this time," Drift said. "That's what matters now."

 

"Yeah." Draft nodded, wincing slightly as white flashed over him. "But it's still pulling apart. Listen. Scattered, we have a chance."

 

"You keep sayin' that," Felix murmured. "What d'you mean? Draft, I--" 

 

He cut off as Draft backed further, deliberately setting a foot against the lines of code still flashing through the mountain; immediately his code scattered entirely again, from the center out, red and blue pixels swirling together before the red vanished altogether.

 

Draft didn't reform. Neither did Turbo.

 

Silence fell as the codelines slowly faded from Diet Cola Mountain, and it was some time before they even thought to treat the injuries left behind.

 

* * *

 

It was close to opening time and most of the Marines had dispersed, leaving only Felix, Calhoun, Ralph, and Drift as the only outsiders still in Sugar Rush. They had all gathered in the throne room with Vanellope, King Candy, and Sour Bill; quiet reigned as the other racers headed out to prepare to open and King Candy and Felix checked the code over.

 

"So that's it, then," Drift said wearily once Felix gave an all-clear. "That's all, and now...."

 

He trailed off. The others exchanged glances, shuffling worriedly; King Candy was the first to break the silence.

 

"Actually... you know, I think it might still be too early to give up hope."

 

Drift looked up sharply; Felix nodded, smiling just a bit.

 

"He's right. We still got somethin' in that last patch we haven't figured out yet. An' I think it's been proved before - 'disappeared' doesn't necessarily mean 'gone'. Fact is... I don't see anything that might interfere - even Vanellope hasn't got any trouble after he grabbed her like that - but with that patch still actin' so strange... well, we think they might still be somewhere in the code, an' now we got more time to figure out how t'separate 'em." 

 

"Hey, yeah." Vanellope grinned. "I mean, you Turbo Time guys are  _really_  stubborn."

 

"And tenacious," Ralph added.

 

"Not often I see something that hard to shake," Calhoun offered.

 

Drift looked at each of them in turn, chewing the inside of his cheek.

 

Then, finally, he smiled, some of the tension leaving his face and shoulders. 

 

"Yeah. Yeah, sure. I mean, I gave up too early when we were first unplugged, didn't I? And what he kept saying... 'scattered we might have a chance'. Might as well wait and see this time around before I go sulking around." He took a deep breath, focusing on King Candy and Vanellope. "So uh... that leaves... y'know, I think my brother really did - _does_  - love this game."

 

"Yes. I believe that too." King Candy straightened and glanced at Vanellope, who nodded eagerly. "Drift. A long time ago, Vanny and I invited a racer from an unplugged game to live with us here, in Sugar Rush. At the time, we thought we were talking to Turbo."

 

"But I think it seems  _pret_ -ty clear we actually meant to invite Draft." Vanellope grinned as she glitched forward, tucking her hands behind her back as she stopped. "And hey - we can't leave family out, can we?"

 

"Not if I have anything to say about it." Drift nodded at her before looking up at Felix and Ralph. "So - programming in, huh? Fixes all the gameless issues I'm told."

 

"So far so good," Ralph said. "And Felix actually said Sugar Rush should have enough material."

 

"Newer games just might be easier to add to," Felix added. "Might take a day or so is all - you just need a native character to seal it."

 

"And I can count on that?" 

 

King Candy and Vanellope both nodded, Vanellope taking hold of Drift's hand.

 

"You can count on us!"

 

"You have a place here, my boy - you always have."

 

Drift snorted. 

 

"Boy? You know I'm older than you, right?"

 

King Candy laughed, waving a hand.

 

"A matter of perception, that's all."

 

"All right, all right - we can take care of all that tonight," Calhoun said. "For now, some of us have to get going."

 

"Five minutes to open," Sour Bill added. "Miss President, Your Highness, you both need to get to the track." 

 

"All right, all right, we're going." Vanellope waved dismissively. "Have fun today, guys! Drift, you coming to watch the races? Maybe you can be in 'em tonight after the Roster Race!"

 

"I don't know...."

 

"Aw, come on - am I gonna have to make you a brand new kart too? You gotta be in practice when we get Draft...."

 

Drift raised a brow as they all headed out of the castle, watching as Vanellope glitched up to Ralph's shoulder to grin down at him.

 

Then he smiled again, shrugging.

 

"Sure, Princessident. Let's make a go-kart - and then we'll see who  _really_  rules the races around here."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And so ends Missing Pieces. Please stay tuned for the third and final part of the series!


End file.
